The special relationship of internalizing symptoms and wellbeing: A cross-validation study considering indicator-level associations beyond the dual-factor model of mental health

Dual-factor models of mental health have emphasized the importance of considering both mental health difficulties and wellbeing in young people. However, studies to date have failed to consider the conceptual and statistical similarity between wellbeing and internalizing indicators. Drawing on network methods, we present exploratory and confirmatory models of indicator-level interactions for internalizing symptoms and wellbeing in two large independent samples (sample 1, N = 14,805, sample 2, N = 14,066). A densely connected network was found which showed good stability across samples. The most and strongest relationships were observed within the two domains. Nevertheless, direct associations similar to some within-domain relationships were also observed between internalizing and wellbeing indicators. Worry was the most central indicator in both samples, and was meaningfully related to the wellbeing indicator “feeling relaxed”. Evidence of known-groups validity was demonstrated since indicator-level interactions in the networks were sensitive to known differences between girls and boys. Findings suggest the covariance between internalizing symptom and wellbeing indicators in adolescent datasets should be more closely attended to, and controlled for in intervention and epidemiological research.Key words: internalizing symptoms, wellbeing, adolescence, network analysis