ReviewClinical psychology review2020
Beyond linear mediation: Toward a dynamic network approach to study treatment processes.
Review in Clinical psychology review, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 223 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies of alopecia: Managing identity and appearance changes.British journal of health psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Machine learning in the prediction of treatment response for emotional disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical psychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Mechanisms of Change in Digital Health Interventions for Mental Disorders in Youth: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Effectiveness of and Mechanisms of Change in a Self-Help Web- and App-Based Resilience Intervention on Perceived Stress in the General Working Population: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Trial
- Evaluating the Let's Move It intervention programme theory for adolescents' physical activity: Theorized psychosocial mechanisms of behavioural changes.British journal of health psychology · 2025Trial
- Implications of the Network Theory for the Treatment of Mental Disorders: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA psychiatry · 2023Trial
- Treatment-associated network dynamics in patients with globus sensations: a proof-of-concept study.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Predictors of pharmacotherapy outcomes for body dysmorphic disorder: a machine learning approach.Psychological medicine · 2023Trial
- Group autonomy enhancing treatment versus cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders: A cluster-randomized clinical trial.Depression and anxiety · 2022Trial
- Mechanisms of change in treatments for transdiagnostic emotion dysregulation: The roles of skills use, perceived control and mindfulness.Clinical psychology & psychotherapyTrial
- The Role of Psychological Flexibility in Health-Related Quality of Life Among Patients With Persistent Physical Symptoms Associated With Indoor Environment and Chronic Fatigue - 9-Month Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Psychotherapy for older adults with depression: a narrative review.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Treatment of Anxiety in Athletes Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Single-Case Experimental Design with Multiple Baselines.Journal for person-oriented research · 2026Article
- Examining varying number of intervention-modules and change in individual networks in young people remitted from depression or anxiety: Exploratory outcomes of the StayFine randomized clinical trial.Neuroscience applied · 2026Article
- Physical activity and adolescents' parasocial relationships with virtual idols: evidence from loneliness, gender differences, and network analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- A process-based competence evaluation for evidence-based dissemination (PROCEED): a study protocol.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Lessons Learned in Digital Health Promotion: The Promise and Challenge of Contextual Behavioral Science Methodology in Valuing Intervention Research.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Secondary Youth-Level Mechanisms of Change in Parent Training for Anxious Youth.Child & youth care forum · 2025Article
- Choice Matters: The Moderating Effect of Choice on the Relationship Between Mental Health Personal Recovery and Symptomatology.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2025Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Few clinical scientists would disagree that more research is needed on the underlying mechanisms and processes of change in psychological therapies. In the dominant current approach, processes of change are studied through mediation. The study of mediation has been largely structured around a distinction between moderation and mediation first popularized by Baron and Kenny's (1986) seminal article, which is based on a nomothetic and cross-sectional framework. In this article, we argue that this approach is unable to adequately address change processes in psychological therapies, because it falsely assumes that treatment change is a linear, unidirectional, pauci-variate process and that the statistical assumptions are met to study processes of change in an individual using a nomothetic approach. In contrast, we propose that treatment is a dynamic process involving numerous variables that may form bi-directional and complex relationships that differ between individuals. Such relationships can best be studied using an individual dynamic network approach connected to nomothetic generalization methods that are based on a firm idiographic foundation. We argue that our proposal is available, viable, and can readily be integrated into existing research strategies. We further argue that adopting an individual dynamic network approach combined with experimental analyses will accelerate the study of treatment change processes, which is necessary as the field of evidence-based care moves toward a process-based model. We encourage future research to gather empirical evidence to examine this approach.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.