Habitual behavior has been identified as a key process involved in a variety of mental health disorders. Previous research has shown that habit is not a unitary construct. The present study examined how different components of habitual behavior relate to problematic reward-seeking behaviors and compulsive behaviors. Four hundred and one participants completed a French version of the Creature of Habit Scale, which measures two components of habitual behavior: routine and automaticity. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing compulsivity, impulsivity, stress, and a variety of problematic reward-seeking behaviors, from which five transdiagnostic factors were extracted using an exploratory factor analysis. A dynamic network analysis indicated that the two habitual behavior components were differentially related to these transdiagnostic factors: routine was associated to compulsivity, while automaticity was associated to problematic media consumption. These findings suggest that taking the non-unitary architecture of habit into account may help to better understand the role of habit in mental health.
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