The association between daily reports of psychotic experiences and life worthiness in early risk stages for psychosis and across gender

Aim Explore the temporal and contemporaneous associations between daily reports of psychotic experiences (PEs) and life worthiness (LW) in individuals in early risk stages for psychosis, and to examine whether these associations differ across risk stages and gender. Method We analyzed 90-day daily diary data from a prospective cohort study. N = 96 individuals (mean age = 24.7 years; range = 18–35; 77% female) were divided into four subgroups with each group having increasing levels of risk for psychosis: increased risk no current symptoms (subgroup 1; n = 25), low risk (subgroup 2; n = 27), mild risk (subgroup 3; n = 24), and ultra-high risk (subgroup 4; n = 20). Multilevel vector autoregressive models were used to assess the associations between PEs and LW, and compare across subgroup and gender. Results PEs and LW were negatively associated, temporally (PEsₜ₋₁➔LWₜ: B = −0.08, p < 0.01; LWₜ₋₁➔PEsₜ: B = −0.02, p < 0.001) and contemporaneously (PEs_res➔LW_res: B = −0.50, p < 0.001; LW_res➔PEs_res: B = −0.10, p < 0.001). Small subgroup differences were observed, although no clear patterns could be distinguished. The contemporaneous association was stronger in males compared to females (B = -0.03, p < 0.01). Conclusion Analyses showed associations between PEs and LW. Findings highlight LW as a potential protective factor already in early stages of psychosis, underscoring the value of targeting LW in early interventions.