Network Model Trees

In many areas of psychology, correlation-based network approaches (i.e., psychometric networks) have become a popular tool. In this paper we define a statistical model for correlation-based networks and propose an approach that recursively splits the sample based on covariates in order to detect significant differences in the network structure. We adapt model-based recursive partitioning and conditional inference tree approaches for finding covariate splits in a recursive manner. This approach is implemented in the networktree R package. The empirical power of these approaches is studied in several simulation conditions. Examples are given using real-life data from personality and clinical research.