{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T10:08:49Z","timestamp":1789380529620,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789344000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Research Center for Brain Cognition and Human Development, Guangdong, China","award":["2024B0303390003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024B0303390003"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behav. Sci.","Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Introduction: This study examined whether severity-defined profiles of internalizing and externalizing problems among Chinese adolescents differed in their symptom connectivity. Method: Participants were 1200 Chinese adolescents aged 9 to 15 years who were assessed in 2018 and 2022. Fourteen internalizing and externalizing problem items were analyzed. Latent profile analysis was used to obtain a coarse severity-based grouping at each wave, after which Gaussian graphical models were estimated within profiles. Profile networks were formally compared using permutation-based Network Comparison Tests, and robustness to the EBIC hyperparameter was examined across \u03b3 = 0, 0.25, and 0.50. Results: A two-profile solution was retained at each wave as an interpretable lower- versus higher-symptom partition with adequate group sizes. Formal comparisons showed greater global strength in the lower-symptom profile at both waves. Overall network structure differed significantly between profiles at Time 1 but not at Time 2. Several node strength differences were detected, although the exact ordering of central nodes was not uniformly robust across regularization settings. Conclusions: Severity-defined profiles differed reliably in overall symptom connectivity, whereas evidence for broader profile-specific network configurations was wave-specific. These cross-sectional network findings describe conditional association patterns and should be treated as hypothesis-generating rather than as evidence of causal mechanisms or optimal intervention targets.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16091643","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T09:34:01Z","timestamp":1789378441000},"page":"1643","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Lower Severity, Denser Network: Profile-Specific Symptom Architecture in Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Problems"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Huina","family":"Teng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of Reading and Development in Children and Adolescents, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510631, China"},{"name":"School of Health Management, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, China"},{"name":"School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Cui","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of Reading and Development in Children and Adolescents, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510631, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Yue","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Boyu","family":"Qiu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of Reading and Development in Children and Adolescents, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510631, China"},{"name":"School of Health Management, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Wei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of Reading and Development in Children and Adolescents, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510631, China"},{"name":"School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.2307\/1165983","article-title":"Behavioral problems and competencies reported by parents of normal and disturbed children aged four through sixteen","volume":"46","author":"Achenbach","year":"1981","journal-title":"Monographs of the Society for Research in Child 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