Aim
Presentation of attenuated positive psychotic symptoms (APS) was reported to be modestly influenced by age, sex and education in a psychosis‐risk sample. We re‐examined the influence of demographic variables on APS in an independent psychosis‐risk sample.
Method
In a clinical high‐risk‐sample (N = 188; 13‐35 years; 60.1% men), bivariate correlations were examined with Spearman correlations. All other associations were computed with generalized linear models.
Results
Inter‐correlations between positive symptoms were statistically significant for all but the smallest coefficient (range: r = 0.12‐0.49). Age was negatively related to APS (range: OR = 0.53‐0.78, all P < .01). Male sex was uniquely related to disorganized communication (OR = 1.46) and a high education‐level related negatively to suspiciousness/persecutory ideas (OR = 0.64), perceptual abnormalities/hallucinations (OR = 0.57) and disorganized communication (OR = 0.54). The variance explained by age ranged from
R
2
= 0.044 for unusual thought content to
R
2
= 0.144 for perceptual abnormalities.
Conclusion
Our results highlighted the role of age and, thereby, neurodevelopment in psychosis‐risk assessment.