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The Joint Impact of Trait Competitiveness and Competitive Climate on Depressive Symptoms and Anxiety Among Adolescents

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Abstract

Competitive climate and individual competitive characteristics jointly affect the mental health of adolescents. Based on person-environment fit theory, this study aimed to examine the effects of the match between trait competitiveness and competitive climate on depressive symptoms and anxiety. In this study, data were collected from 2235 Chinese adolescents in the 10th to 12th grades (48.8% girls; Mage = 16.06 years, SDage = 0.95). Self-reported depressive symptoms, general anxiety, trait competitiveness, and competitive climate were assessed. Polynomial regression analyses and response surface analyses indicated that in cases of congruence, as trait competitiveness and competitive climate increase, depressive symptoms and anxiety increase, as do their growth rate. In cases of incongruence, higher levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety are found when trait competitivenesså competitive climate compared to when competitive climateå trait competitiveness. And as trait competitiveness become increasingly higher than competitive climate, the level of depressive symptoms and anxiety were higher. This serves as a reminder for families and schools to place special emphasis on the mental health of adolescents with high levels of trait competitiveness who may exhibit high levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety.

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Funding

The study is supported by the Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality Postgraduate Project (BTZK-2021A1-20007).

Data Sharing and Declaration

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment for Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Wenjie Liu, Hongbo Wen, Chengwei Zhu, Xi Quan & Cai Zhang

  2. Haidian Institute of Education Sciences, No.4 Cuiwei Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100097, China

    Xia Wang

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  1. Wenjie Liu
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  2. Hongbo Wen
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  3. Chengwei Zhu
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  4. Xi Quan
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Contributions

W. L. conceived of the study, participated in its design, performed the statistical analysis and coordination, and drafted the manuscript; H. W. helped to draft the manuscript; C. Z. helped with the statistical analysis and interpretation of the data, and drafted the manuscript; X. Q. participated literature retrieval; W. X. provided the resource of data collection. C. Z. conceived and oversaw the collection of data for the main database, guided research ideas, and assisted in drafting, editing, and finalizing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cai Zhang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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All procedures performed in the present study were following the recommendations of the Research Ethics Committee of the Beijing Normal University and with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Written informed consent was obtained from the involved schools and parents of the participating students.

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Liu, W., Wen, H., Zhu, C. et al. The Joint Impact of Trait Competitiveness and Competitive Climate on Depressive Symptoms and Anxiety Among Adolescents. J. Youth Adolescence 53, 79–88 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01858-8

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