Structure and centrality of clinically meaningful psychopathology constructs across age groups in a Brazilian sample

This cross-sectional study examined the network structure and centrality of clinically meaningful psychopathology constructs across adolescence (14–17 years; N = 895), emerging adulthood (18–29 years; N = 717), and established adulthood (30–45 years; N = 381) in a Brazilian sample. Using the clinical scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and PAI-Adolescent (PAI-A), we applied exploratory graph analysis (EGA) and estimated centrality and bridge centrality metrics to identify communities and structurally connected constructs within each age group. Across all three age groups, EGA revealed a three-community structure partially consistent with dimensional models of psychopathology, identifying internalizing, externalizing, and severe dysregulation clusters. Borderline features were the most central across all networks and served as the dominant bridge in emerging and established adulthood groups, whereas somatic complaints played this role in the adolescent group. A notable difference across age groups was observed for mania, which clustered with the severe dysregulation community in adolescents but with the externalizing community in emerging and established adults. These findings highlight both similarities and cross-sectional age-related differences in the organization of broad psychopathology domains across age groups. The use of a large Brazilian sample contributes to addressing geographic inequities in mental health research.