The Relational Architecture of Complex Thinking in International Postgraduate Education: Psychometric Network Evidence from Japan

Complex thinking is increasingly relevant in international postgraduate education, yet limited evidence exists on how its components are internally articulated within multicultural graduate cohorts. This study examined the relational organization of complex thinking among 491 international master’s students enrolled at a graduate institution in Japan. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was implemented using the 25-item eComplexity instrument. An item-level regularized psychometric network was estimated to identify central and bridge nodes, node predictability, empirical communities, and exploratory structural differences across groups with sufficient sample sizes. The resulting network was predominantly positive, with prominent associations involving systemic and scientific items. Bootstrap difference tests did not support a clear ranking among the nodes with the highest strength values. Case-dropping bootstrap showed greater stability for bridge strength (CS = 0.50) than for node strength (CS = 0.30), although the relative ranking of individual nodes should be interpreted cautiously. Innovative thinking was distributed across the network rather than functioning as an autonomous component, suggesting that it was relationally linked to systemic, scientific, and critical processes. Exploratory comparisons showed no significant network differences by sex. For China and Nepal, statistical significance depended on the structural difference statistic, and no individual edge difference remained significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Differential item functioning and limited subgroup stability further restricted the interpretation of this comparison. Overall, the study extends previous factorial validation and score-based analyses by showing how psychometric network analysis can identify the components that structure and connect a multidimensional competency. These findings provide complementary evidence for competency assessment, curriculum design, and postgraduate research training in multicultural higher education contexts.