The Relationship Between Corruption Perception and Depression: A Multiple Mediation Model

Abstract

Background: Corruption perception is an important risk factor for depression. On the psychological level, corruption perception will cause negative emotions to individuals. On the physiological level, higher corruption perception may mean a more unfair social environment, which is not conducive to individuals' health. However, the mechanism linking corruption perception and depression has not been fully understood. Objective: To investigate how corruption perception affects depression, this study used trust in government and online news consumption as mediators to construct a multiple mediation model. Methods: The data used in this study were derived from the 2016 wave and 2018 wave of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). After eliminating samples with missing values, this study finally included 7845 samples. This study used Stata version 16.0 and a longitudinal research design to investigate the relationship between corruption perception and depression. Results: The results revealed that the increase on corruption perception could aggravate depression (β = 0.037, p < 0.05). Meanwhile, trust in government partially mediated the effect of corruption perception on depression (indirect effect = 0.030, p < 0.001). Notably, online news consumption partially masked the effect of corruption perception on depression (indirect effect = −0.003, p < 0.01). Conclusion:Trust in government and online news consumption may be two important mediators between corruption perception and depression. More attention should be paid to the relationship between corruption perception and depression, and mental health promotion interventions could be tailored to alleviate depression in the future.

Relationship between positive parenting and adolescents’ depressive symptoms: Evidence from a Chinese research survey

“…In the 2020 CFPS, the CES-D-8, consisting of two positive items (‘I was happy’ and ‘I enjoyed life’) and six negative questions (‘I felt depressed’, ‘I felt that everything I did was an effort’, ‘My sleep was restless’, ‘I felt lonely’, ‘I felt sad’, and ‘I could not get going’), was used to assess adolescent depressive symptoms. This version of scale has good reliability and validity in China (Nan et al, 2023; Zhang, 2022), and in this study, Cronbach’s α was.96. Each positive item is scored from 0 (never) to 3 (almost every day) and two negative items are scored on a scale from 3 (never) to 0 (almost every day).…”

“…Moreover, it may persist into the later stages of life and result in continued difficulties for the family and society (Clayborne et al, 2019;World Health Organization, 2020). Recently, the Chinese government implemented the Healthy China Action Plan (2019)(2020)(2021)(2022)(2023)(2024)(2025)(2026)(2027)(2028)(2029)(2030) and the Healthy China Action Plan-Children and Adolescents ' Mental Health Plan (2019-2022 (National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China, 2019aChina, , 2019b. Given the adverse impact of adolescent depression and background of national policy orientation, it is essential to identify the potential protective factors of adolescents' depressive symptoms, so that depression can be intervened into and prevented in a targeted way.…”

The influence of perceived government corruption on depressive symptoms with social status as a moderator

“…A previous study has found that perceived government corruption will be transmitted through individuals' trust in government and masked by online political news consumption, thus impacting depressive symptoms 55 . This finding has strengthened the understanding of the mechanism of how perceived government corruption influences depressive symptoms from the perspective of political psychology.…”

Percepção Da Corrupção E Do Progresso Social Mundial Sob a Ótica Institucional Ítulo Do Artigo

“…As pressões culturais, que têm como base aquilo que é tido como certo, acabam forçando as pessoas a adotarem comportamentos que são culturalmente apoiados, com vistas à legitimidade (SCOTT, 2013). Regras e normas das instituições públicas são frequentemente vistas com desconfiança por indivíduos que possuem maior percepção de corrupção, o que pode levar a comportamentos de desconfiança generalizada em relação ao governo (ZHANG, 2022).…”