The Buffering Effect of Character Strengths on Depression

Abstract. The transition from high school to college can be very stressful for Turkish students because they may experience value conflicts and adjustment issues, which can trigger the development of mental health problems. Character strengths can serve as a buffer against psychopathology. The aim of the study was to examine perceived stress and negative attributional style as mediating factors between character strengths and depression among Turkish college students. Bootstrap testing approach was implemented to compute direct and indirect effects and total effect in the mediation analysis. Altogether 235 students from two Turkish universities participated in the study. The results showed that character strengths were associated with lower levels of depression and it was negatively associated with perceived stress and negative attributional style. The results also indicated that perceived stress and negative attribution style completely mediated the relationship between character strengths and depression among Turkish college students. These findings suggested the need to develop empirically supported interventions that can promote character strengths toward reducing stress, negative attributions, and depression in this population.