ABSTRACT

Object: This study used social network analysis to explore the structural relationships between depression and anxiety symptoms in late adolescence to inform early targeted interventions.Methods: A total of 108 first-year university students (aged 18-24 years, from Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea) completed self-report questionnaires. Depression and anxiety were assessed using 16 CES-D items (excluding positive affect) and 10 SCL-90-R items, respectively. Network indices (density, inclusiveness, path length, and isolated nodes) and centrality measures (degree and betweenness) were analyzed using NetMiner 4.0.Results: Network density was higher in females (0.582) than in males (0.415), with average path lengths of 1.418 and 1.585, respectively. Both groups showed full inclusiveness with no isolated nodes. The highest degree centrality was related to “lonely” and “friendly” for males, and “eating” and “sadness” for females. Regarding betweenness centrality, “friendly” and “failure” ranked the highest for males, while “eating” and “friendly” ranked the highest for females. Cohesion analysis identified five male symptom clusters and six female symptom clusters.Conclusion: Female students exhibited denser networks centered on somatic symptoms, whereas males showed simpler structures involving social disconnection and self-worth. These findings support the need for sex-specific early mental health strategies, including occupational therapy-based emotion regulation approaches.