The impact of alexithymia, anxiety, social pressure, and academic burnout on depression in Chinese university students: an analysis based on SEM.

IF 2.7 3区 心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Mingyang Sun, Ming Piao, Zhaona Jia
{"title":"The impact of alexithymia, anxiety, social pressure, and academic burnout on depression in Chinese university students: an analysis based on SEM.","authors":"Mingyang Sun, Ming Piao, Zhaona Jia","doi":"10.1186/s40359-024-02262-y","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>With societal development and increasing talent demands, college students face escalating pressures primarily stemming from academic burdens, uncertainties about the future, and complex social environments. These pressures have profound effects on mental health, particularly negatively impacting emotions and behavior. In this context, depressive symptoms are becoming increasingly prevalent among college students. Given the potential links between emotional disorders, anxiety, social pressure, and academic burnout, this study aims to explore how these factors collectively influence depression in college students.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study utilized a questionnaire approach, resulting in 599 valid responses. The collected data were analyzed using Smart-PLS for SEM to investigate the relationships among the variables.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The SEM analysis indicated that the comprehensive model explained 83.2% of the variance in depression. Alexithymia significantly positively predicted anxiety and social pressure. Academic burnout significantly positively influenced social pressure, anxiety, and depression. Anxiety played a partial mediating role in the impact of alexithymia and academic burnout on depression. Social pressure and alexithymia did not have a significant positive impact on depression. In addition, there is a significant gender difference in the impact of academic burnout on depression, with the path coefficient for males being significantly higher than that for females.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study validated the complex relationships among alexithymia, anxiety, social pressure, academic burnout, and depression. As an emotional expression disorder, alexithymia not only directly impacts anxiety levels in college students but also indirectly affects depression through anxiety. Furthermore, the positive influence of academic burnout on anxiety and depression indicates that excessive academic burdens are significant sources of mental health issues for college students. This research offers new insights into understanding college students' mental health issues, aiming to provide more comprehensive intervention strategies for their psychological well-being.</p>","PeriodicalId":37867,"journal":{"name":"BMC Psychology","volume":"12 1","pages":"757"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMC Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02262-y","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: With societal development and increasing talent demands, college students face escalating pressures primarily stemming from academic burdens, uncertainties about the future, and complex social environments. These pressures have profound effects on mental health, particularly negatively impacting emotions and behavior. In this context, depressive symptoms are becoming increasingly prevalent among college students. Given the potential links between emotional disorders, anxiety, social pressure, and academic burnout, this study aims to explore how these factors collectively influence depression in college students.

Methods: This study utilized a questionnaire approach, resulting in 599 valid responses. The collected data were analyzed using Smart-PLS for SEM to investigate the relationships among the variables.

Results: The SEM analysis indicated that the comprehensive model explained 83.2% of the variance in depression. Alexithymia significantly positively predicted anxiety and social pressure. Academic burnout significantly positively influenced social pressure, anxiety, and depression. Anxiety played a partial mediating role in the impact of alexithymia and academic burnout on depression. Social pressure and alexithymia did not have a significant positive impact on depression. In addition, there is a significant gender difference in the impact of academic burnout on depression, with the path coefficient for males being significantly higher than that for females.

Conclusion: This study validated the complex relationships among alexithymia, anxiety, social pressure, academic burnout, and depression. As an emotional expression disorder, alexithymia not only directly impacts anxiety levels in college students but also indirectly affects depression through anxiety. Furthermore, the positive influence of academic burnout on anxiety and depression indicates that excessive academic burdens are significant sources of mental health issues for college students. This research offers new insights into understanding college students' mental health issues, aiming to provide more comprehensive intervention strategies for their psychological well-being.

求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
BMC Psychology
BMC Psychology Psychology-Psychology (all)
CiteScore
3.90
自引率
2.80%
发文量
265
审稿时长
24 weeks
期刊介绍: BMC Psychology is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers manuscripts on all aspects of psychology, human behavior and the mind, including developmental, clinical, cognitive, experimental, health and social psychology, as well as personality and individual differences. The journal welcomes quantitative and qualitative research methods, including animal studies.
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信