Hajdúk M, Penn DL, Harvey PD, et al. - Schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders are characterized by extensive difficulties in reaching functional milestones. Lower social cognitive abilities, cognitive impairment, and current psychopathology, in part, explain these impairments. Dynamic associations among social cognition, neurocognition, psychopathology, social skills, functional capacity, and functional outcomes in schizophrenia are modelled herein using network analysis in order to determine factors that are most central to functioning.

• From the SCOPE project, a total of 408 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were drawn.

• A complex battery of state-of-the-art measures of social cognition, neurocognition, and functional outcomes was completed by the participants.

• The network structure was estimated using Gaussian Graphical Modeling.

• The Bootstrap method was used to evaluate the accuracy of the network.

• Outcomes suggest a complex association between predictors of functional outcomes.

• The factors that are most central to functioning were functional capacity, social - skills, working memory, negative symptoms, mentalizing, and emotion recognition supporting their relevance as potential targets of personalized intervention.