Susceptibility mechanisms for analyzing depressive symptoms in differently disadvantaged children from an integrative...

The aim of this study was to investigate the network structure of depressive symptoms in disadvantaged children and adolescents and the network differences between them and non-disadvantaged individuals. We classified disadvantaged children from an integrated perspective, taking full account of sociodemographic factors and environmental risks. Latent profile analysis was used to identify environmental risk categories. Network analysis was used to examine the interrelationships between 27 symptoms of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and to identify the core symptoms. We evaluated network structure and global strength between different groups. If the difference in network structure was significant, the edge (connection) strength was evaluated. A total of 4574 children completed the survey. Combined with the results of the latent profile analysis, disadvantaged children were classified into four categories as follows: the socially demographic disadvantaged group, the environmental risk group, the doubly disadvantaged group and the non-disadvantaged group. There was a significant difference in the incidence of depression between the different groups, with the lowest incidence in the non-disadvantaged group (15.8%) and the highest incidence in the doubly disadvantaged group (52.72%). There was a significant difference between the network structure of depressive symptoms in the doubly disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged groups, with specific differential edges centered on the entries for self-esteem and interpersonal relationships. The global connectivity of the network was similar for the different groups. The results revealed that children with disadvantages have a greater incidence of depression. The core node of the depressive symptom network focuses on negative emotions. The susceptibility characteristics of depressive symptom networks focused on network structure, including specific edges of "self-esteem" and "relationships", rather than the global connectivity of the network.