Objective  To investigate whether there exists a heterogeneity in psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and related factors of the heterogeneity among adolescents.

  Methods  Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE) was administered among 5 127 students recruited with convenient sampling in Hunan province during 2015 – 2016. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was adopted to explore the heterogeneity of PLEs in the adolescents.

  Results  Among the 4 508 adolescents, the PLEs could be categorized into low, medium, and high frequency types. Compared to the characteristics of respondents with low frequency PLEs, the high frequency PLEs of the respondents was related to following factors: age (odds ratio OR = 1.56, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 1.27 – 1.92), being female (OR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.25 – 2.14), from urban regions (OR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.52 – 2.74), being Han nationality (OR = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.06 – 1.85), in a family without steady income (OR = 2.52, 95% CI: 1.66 – 3.85), in a single parent family (OR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.17 – 2.07), and with family history of mental illness (OR = 3.31, 95% CI: 1.93 – 5.68).

  Conclusion  There exists a significant heterogeneity in PLEs among adolescents and age, gender, and familial status should be considered when conducting early intervention on PLEs in the adolescents.