METACOGNITION, NETWORK-LINKED BEHAVIOURAL INDICES, AND PSYCHOSOCIAL FUNCTIONING: A MULTI-GROUP ESEM–SEM STUDY

Metacognitive beliefs and behavioural indices aligned with large-scale networks plausibly shape day-to-day psychosocial functioning, especially under conditions of persistent stress and fatigue. However, their joint structure and group-level comparability remain under-specified. In a cross-sectional multi-group design (men and women), we administered the MCQ-30, the Fatigue Severity Scale, behavioural proxies of fronto-parietal, salience and default-mode network tendencies, and the Index of Psychosocial Functioning (IPF). Note that the three neurocognitive instruments do not measure large-scale brain networks per se. They are behavioural proxies that characterise probable patterns of attention/control, self-referential processing, and cue detection/switching putatively linked to activity within the frontoparietal (executive), default-mode, and salience networks; accordingly, all inferences are at the level of behaviour/cognition rather than direct neurophysiology. Using multi-group exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) with target rotation, we specified a three-factor measurement solution for the metacognitive– behavioural indicators, tested configural, metric and partial scalar invariance across sex, and regressed a latent IPF outcome on the three factors while controlling for age and education. Missingness was handled with FIML and MLR; WLSMV sensitivity analyses and bootstrap confidence intervals were used where appropriate. The three-factor ESEM structure showed good fit in each group and supported metric and partial scalar invariance. A factor reflecting threat/uncontrollability beliefs displayed robust negative associations with psychosocial functioning, whereas executive confidence/goal-directedness was positively associated; self-focus/monitoring contributed little or inconsistently. Effects were robust to estimator choice and to freeing a small subset of intercepts for partial scalar invariance. Clean separation of predictors and outcome (IPF as a latent criterion) clarifies that metacognitions centred on perceived threat and loss of control undermine functioning, while executive confidence aligned with FPN-like behaviour supports it. Therapeutically, the findings prioritise dampening uncontrollability beliefs and strengthening executive stamina. Behavioural network indices should be interpreted as proxies rather than neural measurements.