Abstract
Previous studies show that neuroticism has a significant impact on depression in college students. However, the mechanisms linking neuroticism and depression remain unclear. This study investigates whether neuroticism influences depression through the mediation of negative cognitive bias and anhedonia and whether there are gender differences in this mechanism. A total of 1085 Chinese college students were surveyed using the Self-rating Depression Scale, the neuroticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire the Negative Cognitive Bias Questionnaire, and the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and a multigroup comparison by gender. The results showed that neuroticism positively predicted the level of depression in college students. Negative cognitive bias and anhedonia played a chain-mediating role in the relationship between neuroticism and depression. Furthermore, there were gender differences in the mechanisms of neuroticism influenced depression. The direct effect of neuroticism on the level of depression was stronger in males, whereas negative cognitive bias mediated the relationship between neuroticism and depression only in females. These findings extend our insight into the mechanisms underlying the association between neuroticism and depression in college students and suggest focusing on gender-specific predictors of depression in college students to develop gender-specific interventions to reduce depression.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during the current study are not publicly available due the information may compromise the privacy of the participants but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 31571161, 31200782, 31971027), Key project of Beijing Education Science Planning, Reevaluation and cognitive training to treat College students with Internet addiction(BEAA21046), Open Research Fund of the CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, and 2021 Tianjin Municipal Education Commission Scientific Research Plan Special Task Project (Mental Health Education) Key Project (grant number 2021ZDGX08).
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Xiaowen Hou, Xinyu Lai and Qi Li designed the study and wrote the manuscript. Xiaowen Hou, Yan Lin and Bibing Dai collected the research data. Xiaowen Hou and Xinyu Lai conducted the statistical analyses. Lei Cao, Baorong Zhong, Ya Zheng and Ping Wei conducted the literature searches and created the figures. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Tianjin Medical University. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Hou, X., Lai, X., Lin, Y. et al. Influence of neuroticism on depression among college students by gender: the mediating roles of negative cognitive bias and anhedonia. Curr Psychol 43, 5901–5913 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04793-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04793-w