Network Analysis of Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in Children and Adolescents

Experiencing psychological problems during childhood and adolescence is common. However, the detection of behaviors as symptoms of psychopathologies requiring clinical diagnosis and treatment remains low. In order to advance understanding of psychological phenomena and particularly their behavioral manifestations, new theoretical and methodological perspectives such as network analysis are applied.

In the present study, we explore the dynamics of the symptoms of different internalizing, externalizing, and personal-contextual problems using network analysis. We estimate networks of regularized partial correlations, including measures of standard centrality, and the global and structural impact of symptoms on each network.

The results show that the syndromes we studied are activated through dynamics of symptoms that are strongly related to each other and act as intermediaries of potential psychopathological problems in children and adolescents (e.g., "feels sad", "worries", "won't talk", "nausea", "threatens others", "steals outside"). Centrality measures and impact coefficient ranges were strength (—2.39, 2.05), betweenness (—1.43, 3.38), closeness (—2.60, 2.23), and expected influence (—2.87, 2.13).

The results suggest the need to explore attribute dynamics as well as symptomatic comorbidity between them.