{"doi":"10.1002/mpr.1985","title":"Developmentally specified characterization of the irritability spectrum at early school age: Implications for pragmatic mental health screening","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: Developmentally specified measures that identify clinically salient irritability are needed for early school-age youth to meaningfully capture this transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. Thus, the current study modeled the normal:abnormal irritability spectrum and generated a clinically optimized screening tool for this population. METHODS: The irritability spectrum was modeled via the youth version of the Multidimensional Assessment Profile Scales-Temper Loss Scale (MAPS-TL-Youth) in children (n = 474; 6.0-8.9 years) using item response theory (IRT). Both cross-cutting core irritability items from the early childhood version and new developmentally specific items were included. Items uniquely associated with impairment were identified and used to derive a brief, clinically optimized irritability screener. Longitudinal data were then utilized to test the predictive utility of this clinically optimized screener in preadolescence (n = 348; 8.0-12.9 years). RESULTS: Most children exhibit irritability regularly, but daily occurrence was rare. Of the top 10 most severe items from the IRT analyses, 9 were from the developmentally specific items added for the MAPS-TL Youth version. Two items associated with concurrent impairment were identified for the clinically optimized irritability screener (\"Become frustrated easily\" and \"Act irritable\"). The MAPS-TL-Youth clinically optimized screener demonstrated good sensitivity (69%) and specificity (84%) in relation to concurrent DSM 5 irritability-related diagnoses. Youth with elevated scores on the screener at early school age (ESA) had more than 7x greater odds of irritability-related psychopathology at pre-adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: The MAPS-TL-Youth characterized the developmental spectrum of irritability at ESA and a clinically optimized screener showed promise at predicting psychopathology risk. Rigorous testing of clinical applications is a critical next step.","journal":"International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research","year":2023,"id":341627,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":15,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8066,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1067424,"name":"Tasmia Alam","orcid":"0009-0003-9605-8871","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":518899,"name":"Nathan Kirk","orcid":"0000-0002-3645-9994","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":355421,"name":"Katherine B. Bevans","orcid":"0000-0003-0145-7945","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":351827,"name":"Margaret J. Briggs‐Gowan","orcid":"0000-0002-5826-5998","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":275837,"name":"Lauren S. Wakschlag","orcid":"0000-0001-9511-2299","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":336933,"name":"Jillian Lee Wiggins","orcid":"0000-0002-4931-6589","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":562791,"name":"Amy Krain Roy","orcid":"0000-0002-2103-0837","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":735078,"name":"Emily Hirsch","orcid":"0000-0001-6891-3226","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":50,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:11:08.077724Z","pmid":"37712753","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}