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Mediating effects of negative cognitive bias and negative affect on neuroticism and depression

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Abstract

Aim: Personality is a critical predictor of the depression levels of adolescents, and neurotic individuals have more severe depressive symptoms than their counterparts. Thus, it is necessary to increase our knowledge about the influencing mechanism of neuroticism on depression. The mediating variables of negative cognitive bias and negative affect were examined in this paper; the examination revealed that neuroticism leads to depression by affecting the aspects of cognition and affect and providing a more comprehensive theoretical basis for depression research in adolescents. Method: In this study, the Beck Depression Invention, the Negative Cognitive Bias Questionnaire, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and the Neuroticism Questionnaire were used to evaluate the depression level, negative cognitive bias, negative affect and neuroticism of college students. The 1035 participants were undergraduate students from 3 universities across the Guangdong Province of China, specifically, 371 male students (35.8%) and 664 female students (64.2%). The students’ ages ranged from 17 to 22 years old, with an average age of 19.54 ± 2.08. Result: (1) Neuroticism was positively correlated with the level of depression (γ =0.594, P < 0.05), which indicates that neuroticism has a positive predictive effect on the level of depression. (2) Neuroticism was positively correlated with negative cognitive bias (γ =0.715, P < 0.05), which indicates that neuroticism has a positive predictive effect on negative cognitive bias. Negative cognitive bias was positively correlated with the level of depression (γ =0.314, P < 0.05), which indicates that negative cognitive bias has a positive predictive effect on the level of depression. According to the mediating effect analysis, the mediating effect of negative cognitive bias between neuroticism and depression was statistically significant, and the mediating effect was 0.262. Negative cognitive bias played a mediating role between neuroticism and depression in college students. (3) Neuroticism was positively correlated with negative affect (γ =0.703, P < 0.05), which indicated that neuroticism has a positive predictive effect on negative affect. Negative affect was positively correlated with depression level (γ =0.307, P < 0.05), which indicated that negative affect has a positive predictive effect on depression level. According to the analysis of the mediating effect, the mediating effect of negative affect between neuroticism and depression level of college students was statistically significant, and the mediating effect was 0.307. Negative affect plays a mediating role between neuroticism and depression levels in college students. Conclusion: (1) Neuroticism has a direct positive predictive effect on college students’ depression level, (2) negative cognitive bias plays a mediating role between neuroticism and depression level of college students, and (3) negative affect plays a mediating role between neuroticism and depression level of college students. Therefore, negative cognitive bias and negative affect play multiple mediating roles between neuroticism and depression levels in college students.

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  1. School of Education and Psychological Science, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China

    Yu Pang

  2. School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangdong, China

    Shuman Wu

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Pang, Y., Wu, S. Mediating effects of negative cognitive bias and negative affect on neuroticism and depression. Curr Psychol 42, 7060–7069 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02052-4

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