Mapping the interplay between psychological vulnerability and protective factors in mental health: a network analysis study

Stress-related disorders like depression and anxiety highlight the need for prevention, prompting increased research into various risk and protective factors associated with psychological distress. This study aimed to identify key factors and their strongest associations with distress symptoms within a comprehensive network model of self-reported and behaviorally measured variables. We analyzed interactions between cognitive biases, emotion regulation strategies, emotions, beliefs, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress in a cross-sectional sample of 489 participants (78% female) from the general Romanian population using network analysis. Findings indicate that negative emotions, stress, and positive reappraisal were the most highly connected variables to the rest of the network (based on expected influence centrality index). Bridge analyses suggest that stress statistically connects between functional and dysfunctional negative emotions and their associations with mental health factors. Additionally, positive emotions, interpretation bias, and rational beliefs are key in this interplay. These results highlight stress and negative emotions as highly connected nodes in the estimated psychological network, which may guide hypothesis generation for future longitudinal and intervention research.