Network Approach to Work Addiction: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

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.

Work Addiction and Work Engagement: a Network Approach to Cross-Cultural Data

“…The engagement cluster showed stronger connection with the cluster including salience, mood modification, and withdrawal than with the cluster including tolerance, relapse, conflict, and problems. This disproportion in number and strength of the edges between the two pairs of clusters provides additional supports for the assumption that the two clusters represent groups of more and less pathological symptoms of work addiction (Bereznowski et al, 2021; see also Charlton & Danforth, 2007).…”

“…A previous study showed that the pattern of direct relationships between symptoms of work addiction was almost identical for individuals of diverse cultural and sociodemographic backgrounds (Bereznowski et al, 2021). In each of the four networks, the most central symptom was relapse, and the least central symptom was mood modification.…”

“…The three samples we used in this study are the same samples that Bereznowski et al (2021) used to investigate direct relationships between symptoms of work addiction. For this reason, our result regarding direct relationships between symptoms of work addiction would closely reflect the results reported by Bereznowski et al (2021) and should not be taken as novel results; therefore, they will not be discussed in this work.…”

“…The network approach to psychopathology (formalized as the network theory of mental disorders; Borsboom, 2017) has become a popular framework for studying mental disorders (Contreras et al, 2019;Fried et al, 2017;Robinaugh et al, 2020). Recently, it has been used to conceptualize work addiction as a dynamic system of symptoms in direct relationships (Bereznowski et al, 2021). This paper aims to extend the previous work by investigating direct relationships of work addiction symptoms with dimensions of work engagement in three samples with diverse cultural and sociodemographic backgrounds (one Norwegian sample and two Polish samples).…”

Work Addiction and Work Engagement: A Network Approach to Cross-Cultural Data

“…Also, studies based on clinical samples and epidemiological surveys, including other psychopathologies and studies investigating potential sex differences in networks, are highly warranted. These should include replication of the current study on study addiction conceptualized as an early form of work addiction (Atroszko et al, 2015(Atroszko et al, , 2016 Bereznowski, P., Atroszko, P. A., & Konarski, R. (2021). Network approach to work addiction: A crosscultural study showed a high replicability of networks across samples from different countries C2 = 150 001-300 000 NOK, C3 = 300 001-450 000 NOK, C4 = 450 001-600 000 NOK, C5 = 600 001-750 000 NOK, C6 = 750 001-900 000 NOK, C7 = 900 001-1 050 000 NOK, C8 = 1 050 001-1 200 000 NOK, C9 = 1 200 001-1 350 000 NOK, C10 = 1 350 001-1 500 000 NOK, C11 = 1 500 001 or more.…”