The expression of early delusion and hallucination-like symptoms,
known as positive schizotypy (PS), holds predictive power for later development of psychotic disorders. However, little is known about the psychological
and emotional processes promoting the expression of PS during adolescent
development. Our study’s objective was to examine the nature of the relationships between adolescent PS and two dimensions previously identified to
contribute to adult positive symptoms of psychosis, metacognitive beliefs and
anxiety. Using a structural equation modeling design, data from self-report
questionnaires measuring anxiety, metacognitive beliefs, and PS were collected
from 179 adolescents aged 12 to 19 years. Our results indicate that although
metacognitive beliefs significantly influence adolescent PS and anxiety, maladaptive contradictory metacognitive beliefs specifically potentiate positive
schizotypal expression in hallucination-prone adolescents. Furthermore, we
observe that PS and anxiety entertain reciprocal relationships. These findings
suggest that relationships between metacognitive beliefs, anxiety, and PS can
already be observed during adolescence.