Using pageRank and social network analysis to specify mental health factors

Abstract

Various factors influence mental well-being, and span individual, social and familial levels. These factors are connected in many ways, forming a complex web of factors and providing pathways for developing programs to improve well-being and for further research. These factors can be studied individually using traditional methods and mapped together to be analyzed holistically from a complex system perspective. This study provides a novel approach using PageRank and social network analysis to understand such maps. The motives are: (1) to realize the most influential factors in such complex networks, (2) to understand factors that influence variations from different network aspects. A previously developed map for children's mental well-being was adopted to evaluate the approach. To achieve our motives, we have developed an approach using PageRank and Social Network Analysis. The results indicate that regardless of the network scale, two key factors called "Quantity and Quality of Relationships" and "Advocacy" can influence children's mental well-being significantly. Moreover, the divergence analysis reveals that one factor, "Recognition/Value Placed on well-being at School" causes a wide range of diffusion throughout the system.