The prevalence and psychosocial risk factors for psychotic-like experiences (PLE) among high school students in Jakarta

Introduction: The prevalence of psychotic-like experiences (PLE) in general population is moderately high (5%-8%), although the prevalence of psychotic disorder is considerably low (˂1%). Amid the urgency to understand the underlying factors of psychotic disorder and PLE, most research tend to focus on genetic factors. However, numerous recent works suggested increasing importance of non-genetic factors. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of PLE and any psychosocial variables that contribute to any occurrence of PLE among adolescent in Jakarta. Methods: This is a school based cross-sectional study that was carried out in early 2017. A total sample of 623 high school students from five schools in Jakarta were selected by using multistage random sampling. Psychotic experience was measured using Psychotic-Like Experiences Questionnaire. Multiple psychosocial variables proposed as predictor model for PLE were examined using multivariate regression. Results: Our final result showed 20.6% prevalence of PLE among high school students in Jakarta. The proposed psychosocial risk model (consisting of violence exposure, parental communication pattern, peer and conduct problems, social comparison, parental attachment, loneliness, and bullying) contributed to explain 16.3% of the occurrence of PLE (R square:.163). Discussion: The prevalence of PLE in this population was considerably high. Cultural factors such as paranormal beliefs are assumed to contribute to the high prevalence of PLE among high school students. The quite low contribution score of psychosocial model proposed in predicting the phenomenon of PLE shows that further research is needed to explore more variables that can be better predictors of PLE.