A modified approach to fitting relative importance networks.

Abstract

Most researchers have estimated the edge weights for relative importance networks using a well-established measure of general dominance for multiple regression. This approach has several desirable properties including edge weights that represent R² contributions, in-degree centralities that correspond to R² for each item when using other items as predictors, and strong replicability. We endorse the continued use of relative importance networks and believe they have a valuable role in network psychometrics. However, to improve their utility, we introduce a modified approach that uses best-subsets regression as a preceding step to select an appropriate subset of predictors for each item. The benefits of this modification include: (a) computation time savings that can enable larger relative importance networks to be estimated, (b) a principled approach to edge selection that can significantly improve specificity, (c) the provision of a signed network if desired, (d) the potential use of the best-subsets regression approach for estimating Gaussian graphical models, and (e) possible generalization to best-subsets logistic regression for Ising models. We describe, evaluate, and demonstrate the proposed approach and discuss its strengths and limitations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).