Network analysis of mental health literacy among adolescents and comparison of gender differences

Mental health literacy serves as a crucial protective factor for adolescents when coping with psychological distress. To deeply investigate the structural characteristics of adolescents’ mental health literacy, this study employed network analysis to construct the network structure of adolescents’ mental health literacy, identify core nodes, and compare gender differences. A stratified random sampling method with grade as the classification variable was adopted to select 1,977 adolescents from grades 4 to 9 in Guangdong, China, to conduct the Adolescent Mental Health Literacy Scale survey. (1) The results of overall network estimation and inference showed that HS5 (“Talking improves mental health”) in the help-seeking dimension had the highest expected influence index, followed by KMH1 (“Thoughts affect feelings”) and KMI2 (“Mental disorders affect emotions”), indicating that these three nodes exerted the greatest influence on the item network. (2) The network comparison results demonstrated a significant difference between males and females in the invariance test of global strength (Male = 6.98, Female = 6.42; global strength difference = 0.56, p = 0.04). In the male network, the top three nodes in terms of expected influence index from high to low were HS3 (“Would disclose mental disorder”), HS1 (“Seek help if problems”), and HS4 (“Comfortable sharing with peers”). In the female network, the top three nodes in terms of expected influence index from high to low were HS5 (“Talking improves mental health”), KMI2 (“Mental disorders affect emotions”), and KMH1 (“Thoughts affect feelings”). The core node of adolescents’ mental health literacy is HS5 (“Talking about my feelings with others helps promote mental health”). Further gender-specific analysis revealed that the core node of mental health literacy for male adolescents was HS3 (“I would actively seek help if I have psychological problems”) in the help-seeking dimension, while for female adolescents, it was HS5 (“Talking about my feelings with others helps promote mental health”) in the help-seeking dimension. Focusing on the help-seeking factor may be a significant intervention direction for enhancing adolescents’ mental health literacy.