ArticleSchizophrenia bulletin2019
Adolescent Paranoia: Prevalence, Structure, and Causal Mechanisms.
Article in Schizophrenia bulletin, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- I tweet, therefore I am: a systematic review on social media use and disorders of the social brain.BMC psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Paranoia and social anxiety: Structural and temporal relationships across adolescence.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Do Psychological Interventions Reduce Paranoia in Adolescents? A Systematic Review.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Review
- Structure and temporal stability of adolescent psychotic experiences: findings from a German longitudinal cohort study.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Causal discovery methods in psychological research: Foundations, algorithms, and a practical tutorial in R.Behavior research methods · 2026Review
- The social media scale for depression in adolescence.International journal of adolescence and youth · 2025Article
- Are people noticing excessive mistrust in others and how do they understand it? A survey of a UK representative adult population.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Social anxiety and paranoid beliefs in adolescents.JCPP advances · 2025Article
- The developmental course of adolescent paranoia: a longitudinal analysis of the interacting role of mistrust and general psychopathology.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Relationship Between Schizotypal Traits, Emotion Regulation, and Negative Affect in Children: A Network Analysis.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2025Article
- Immersive virtual reality as a novel approach to investigate the association between adverse events and adolescent paranoid ideation.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Humanistic Therapy for Young People: Client-Perceived Helpful Aspects, Hindering Aspects, and Processes of Change.Journal of child and family studies · 2025Article
- Validation of the Social Mistrust Scale in non-clinical and clinical samples of children aged 8-14 years living in Italy: convergence with anxiety and depression.General psychiatry · 2025Article
- Personality Organization, Childhood Adversity, and Paranoid Thinking: Moderating and Mediating Pathways.Psychopathology · 2025Article
- A longitudinal network of psychotic-like experiences, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and adverse life events: a cohort study of 3,358 college students.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2024Article
- Pandemic Paranoia Scale for Adolescents (PPS-A): An Initial Psychometric Evaluation and Prevalence Study of Adolescents in the United States and United Kingdom.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
- Media Use and Its Associations With Paranoia in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: Ecological Momentary Assessment.JMIR mental health · 2024Article
- Understanding and Treating Persecutory Delusions.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2024Article
- The experience of stigma and treatment-seeking among youth and family members receiving first episode psychosis services.Stigma and health · 2024Article
- The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree? Paranoia and Safety Behaviours in Adolescent-Parent-Dyads.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAdolescence can be a challenging time, characterized by self-consciousness, heightened regard for peer acceptance, and fear of rejection. Interpersonal concerns are amplified by unpredictable social interactions, both online and offline. This developmental and social context is potentially conducive to the emergence of paranoia. However, research on paranoia during adolescence is scarce.
methodOur aim was to examine the prevalence, structure, and probabilistic causal mechanisms of adolescent paranoia. A representative school cohort of 801 adolescents (11-15 y) completed measures of paranoia and a range of affective, cognitive, and social factors. A Bayesian approach with Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) was used to assess the causal interactions with paranoia.
resultsParanoid thoughts were very common, followed a continuous distribution, and were hierarchically structured. There was an overall paranoia factor, with sub-factors of social fears, physical threat fears, and conspiracy concerns. With all other variables controlled, DAG analysis identified paranoia had dependent relationships with negative affect, peer difficulties, bullying, and cognitive-affective responses to social media. The causal directions could not be fully determined, but it was more likely that negative affect contributed to paranoia and paranoia impacted peer relationships. Problematic social media use did not causally influence paranoia.
conclusionsThere is a continuum of paranoia in adolescence and occasional suspicions are common at this age. Anxiety and depression are closely connected with paranoia and may causally contribute to its development. Paranoia may negatively impact adolescent peer relationships. The clinical significance of paranoia in adolescents accessing mental health services must now be established.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.