Lower Severity, Denser Network: Profile-Specific Symptom Architecture in Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

Introduction: This study examined whether severity-defined profiles of internalizing and externalizing problems among Chinese adolescents differed in their symptom connectivity. Method: Participants were 1200 Chinese adolescents aged 9 to 15 years who were assessed in 2018 and 2022. Fourteen internalizing and externalizing problem items were analyzed. Latent profile analysis was used to obtain a coarse severity-based grouping at each wave, after which Gaussian graphical models were estimated within profiles. Profile networks were formally compared using permutation-based Network Comparison Tests, and robustness to the EBIC hyperparameter was examined across γ = 0, 0.25, and 0.50. Results: A two-profile solution was retained at each wave as an interpretable lower- versus higher-symptom partition with adequate group sizes. Formal comparisons showed greater global strength in the lower-symptom profile at both waves. Overall network structure differed significantly between profiles at Time 1 but not at Time 2. Several node strength differences were detected, although the exact ordering of central nodes was not uniformly robust across regularization settings. Conclusions: Severity-defined profiles differed reliably in overall symptom connectivity, whereas evidence for broader profile-specific network configurations was wave-specific. These cross-sectional network findings describe conditional association patterns and should be treated as hypothesis-generating rather than as evidence of causal mechanisms or optimal intervention targets.