The relationships among trauma, stress, social support, and psychopathology: exploring early warning factors of mental illness from a network analysis perspective

BACKGROUND: In recent years, there has been extensive literature on social support, perceived stress, childhood trauma, depression, and OCD. Previous studies primarily summarized phenomena from existing literature to formulate hypotheses, then employed one-way tests to examine their relationships. To further elucidate their potential connections and provide robust evidence for predicting mental disorders, this study comprehensively explores the associations between mental health risk factors and psychiatric symptoms. METHODS: A total of 1,647 participants were included in the analyses. Their ages ranged from 18 to 50 years (M = 25.5, SD = 6.74), with 65.5% identifying as male and 34.5% as female. They were asked to complete a series of questionnaires, including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Non-suicidal Self-Injury Inventory. Questionnaire scores were treated as nodes to estimate a Gaussian Graphical Model. Partial correlations between nodes were used as edges, and centrality indices-including strength-was computed. RESULTS: Notably, perceived stress stands out as the most robustly connected element among mental health factors, while state-trait anxiety assumes preeminence in terms of strength within the realm of psychopathological symptoms. This investigation, framed within a network perspective, identifies pivotal nodes in the relationships among mental health factors and mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: This study, from a cross-sectional network perspective, identifies central nodes linking mental health factors and psychiatric symptoms. Although this approach does not establish causal relationships, the results enhance our understanding of their interconnections and may contribute to the development of more systematic and effective early-warning systems for psychological disorders in adults.