Differences in Connection Strength between Mental Symptoms Might Be Explained by Differences in Variance: Reanalysis of Network Data Did Not Confirm Staging

Abstract

Reanalysis of the data did not provide convincing evidence in support of staging as characterized by increasing connection strength between mental states. Network researchers should be aware that differences in connection strength between symptoms may be caused by differences in variances, in which case they should not be interpreted as differences in impact of one symptom on another symptom.