Longitudinal associations between authentic inner compass and depressive symptoms among college students: A latent curve model with structured residuals

Prior cross-sectional research has shown that authentic inner compass (AIC) is negatively associated with depressive symptoms (DS), but the longitudinal associations between AIC and DS remain unexamined. This study separated the between-person trajectories of AIC and DS, and identified the within-person associations between AIC and DS using the latent curve model with structured residuals. The participants were 744 Chinese college students (69.6 % female; M_age = 18.61 at the baseline survey) who reported their AIC and DS once a year across their four-year college period. The results showed that, at the between-person level, the initial levels and growth rates of AIC and DS were not associated with each other. At the within-person level, deviations in AIC from the expected AIC trajectory were negatively associated with deviations in DS from the expected DS trajectory one year later among college students, but the reverse associations were not found. These findings highlight the protective role of AIC in the development of DS within individuals, suggesting that taking measures to enhance college students' AIC may be a feasible strategy for intervening in their increasingly prevalent DS.