Thursday, August 25, 2011

Factor Analysis of Newson Syndrome Traits

This is another analysis involving the same survey I was analyzing in this post. This one is a factor analysis of the characteristics asked about in the survey, to see if Newson Syndrome traits load on a single factor.

Firstly, I selected all those symptom questions that at least 90% of the sample answered, and did a factor analysis on them. The analysis showed 8 factors (italicized items loaded more strongly on a different factor):

  • Factor 1: acts incapable to demands (.740), tantrums to demands (.698), impulsivity (.646), makes nonsense sounds or interrupts to demands (.599), distracts to avoid demands (.559), aggression (.505), other demand response (-.464), distractibility (.405), unaware of other people's feelings (.312) and hyperactivity (.308)
  • Factor 2: doesn't want friends (.752), uses facial expressions (-.626), makes eye contact (-.612), seldom feels part of group (.506), uses gestures (-.356) and unaware of other people's feelings (.323)
  • Factor 3: complies to demands (.565), uses gestures (.533), other demand response (-.458), aggression (-.475), plays pretend (.408), hyperactivity (.404) and refuses to speak to demands (.315)
  • Factor 4: refuses to speak to demands (-.648), fantasy to demands (.428), hyperactivity (.417), distractibility (.397), echoing demands (.365), seldom feels part of group (-.353), and complies to demands (.316)
  • Factor 5: plays pretend (.668), fantasy to demands (-.595), unaware of people's feelings (.420), distractibility (.365) and distracts to avoid demands (-.311)
  • Factor 6: echoing demands (.700), hyperactivity (-.461), makes nonsense sounds or interrupts to demands (.324) and unaware of other people's feelings (-.302)
  • Factor 7: excuses self from demands (-.494), doesn't want friends (.369), makes nonsense sounds or interrupts to demands (.354), makes eye contact (.328), distracts to avoid demands (-.319) and uses gestures (.307)
  • Factor 8: unaware of other people's feelings (.452), uses facial expressions (.401), excuses self from demands (.367) and complies to demands (.343)
Similar to my last foray into factor analysis, this one spat out several factors that don't make much sense. However, Factor 1 looks like mostly demand avoidance, and Factor 2 is clearly social impairment.

Of the characteristics mentioned as PDA symptoms, it appears that pretend-related symptoms don't correlate all that strongly with demand avoidance.

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