Identifying the Central Components of Perceived Costs and Benefits of Helping Peers with Depression: A Psychological Network Analysis Using Japanese Undergraduate Samples^1,2

Abstract

Several training programs and forums for mental health peer support have been developed, and perceptions of costs and benefits affecting peer supporters' helping behaviors have been investigated. To investigate the most efficient ways to motivate people to provide mental health peer support, we conducted a series of cross-sectional network analyses that (a) visualized the network structures of the perceived costs and benefits of helping or not helping peers with depression; and (b) identified the most central component in each network. Participants were 297 Japanese undergraduates (mean age = 19.27 years) who rated how much they cared about items related to the costs/benefits of helping/not helping using a Likert scale. A series of psychological networks consisting of nodes (components) connected by edges (regularized partial correlations) were estimated, and the most central component judged on the basis of high scores for strength, closeness, and betweenness indexes was identified in each network (e.g., "loss of energy" in the Costs of Helping network). Discussion focuses on these identified central components as targets for intervention within the larger networks of perceived costs and benefits.