The network approach to psychopathology (formalized as the network theory of mental disorders) conceptualizes mental disorders as dynamic systems consisting of symptoms which are in direct causal relationships with each other. The core rationale for the utility of the network approach is a belief that treatment and prevention programs would be more effective if targets of intervention were certain symptoms or direct causal relationships between pairs of symptoms rather than mental disorders as syndromes. As such, the network approach creates a new promising framework for studying mental disorders. In this study, we aimed to estimate and compare networks of work addiction among Norwegian and Polish working individuals. We used four samples in which work addiction was measured with the Bergen Work Addiction Scale. Two samples comprised responses from working Norwegians (n1 = 16,426; n2 = 776) and two samples comprised responses from working Poles (n3 = 719; n4 = 715). We jointly estimated four networks using the fused graphic lasso method. Additionally, we estimated symptoms centrality, symptoms predictability, the stability of each network, and quantitatively compared all networks. The results showed highly similar networks across the four samples. There were several strong direct relationships between symptoms. The most and the least central symptoms were Relapse and Mood modification, respectively. Mean symptom predictability varied between 23.3% and 28.8% across samples. The network approach is a promising framework for studying work addiction, and this study showed that the dynamic system of the symptoms of work addiction is almost identical for both the Norwegian and Polish samples. Issues of proper symptom measurement and understanding of strict interconnectedness of addiction symptoms in networks are discussed.
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