Negative Life Events and Negative Emotions among Chinese College Students: The Chain Mediating Roles of Social Phobia and Insomnia.

Abstract

Negative life events have been associated with the development of negative emotions, few studies have examined the chain mediating effect between negative life events and negative emotions among college students. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between negative life events and negative emotions in college students, as well as the chain mediating roles of social phobia and insomnia. A total of 8050 college students in three colleges in Anhui Province were selected through stratified cluster sampling method. Baseline data were collected in 2021 and followed up 6 months later. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the two. Bootstrapping procedure was used to test for mediating effects. Spearman correlation analysis showed that negative life events were significantly positively correlated with social phobia, insomnia, stress, depression and anxiety (r = 0.388, 0.319, 0.448, 0.449, 0.441). Among college students, the mediating effects of social phobia between negative life events and stress, depression, anxiety were 35.36%, 36.81%, and 37.27%, respectively. Meanwhile, the mediating effects of insomnia between negative life events and stress, depression, anxiety were 10.50%, 9.82% and 9.94%, respectively. The chain mediating effects of social phobia and insomnia between negative life events and stress, depression, anxiety were 3.31%, 3.07%, and 3.11%, in college students, respectively. These results indicate that negative life events can indirectly predict negative emotions, not only through the single mediating effect of social phobia and insomnia but also through the chain mediating effect of social phobia and insomnia.