Three-Wave Longitudinal Survey on the Relationship between Neuroticism and Depressive Symptoms of First-Year College Students: Addictive Use of Social Media as a Moderated Mediator

Abstract

First-year college students’ adaptation problems and related mental health have attracted researchers’ attention. The current research focuses on the depressive symptoms of first-year college students and aims to explore the relationship between the neuroticism trait and depressive symptoms, the mediating effect of addictive use of social media, and the moderating effect of psychological resilience. Three-wave longitudinal data from 1128 first-year students at a university in Fujian Province, China, were collected within three months of their enrollment. PROCESS macro for SPSS with bootstrapping was used to test the model. Results showed that the prevalence of moderate to severe severity of depressive symptoms in first-year students was 10.28% (T1) and 11.17% (T3). Addictive use of social media (T2) plays a moderated mediator role in the relationship between neuroticism (T1) and depressive symptoms (T3) of first-year students. Specifically, a low neuroticism individual does not necessarily have a less addictive use of social media. Psychological resilience (T1) moderated the above mediation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Extraversion and Neuroticism on College Freshmen's Depressive Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Social Support

“…The results are in line with previous studies (10)(11)(12)(13). To be specific, extraversion is always associated with positive emotions, energy and relationship, all of which can protect individuals from depressive symptoms (38,39), while neuroticism can lead to worry, fear, nervous and other negative emotions, which can further increase individuals' depressive symptoms (40)(41)(42). Moreover, previous studies demonstrated that extraversion and neuroticism not only had respective effects, but also interacted on individuals' mental health, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic (12,43).…”

Parental Bonding and Depressive Symptoms among Chinese College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Roles of Neuroticism and Social Support

“…Second, high neuroticism is generally recognized as a risk factor for depression (Liu, Chen, & Chen, 2020a). Individuals with higher levels of neuroticism are found to be more depressive than those with lower levels of neuroticism (Li et al, 2021), and more likely to develop depression in the future (Mu et al, 2020). Moreover, in line with the diathesis-stress perspective (Monroe & Simons, 1991), negative parenting style and neuroticism may have a sequential effect on depressive symptoms.…”

Regional gray matter volume mediates the relationship between neuroticism and depressed emotion

“…In healthy people, depressed emotion is one of the most common emotional problems and has an important impact on individual physical and mental health. Previous research has revealed that neuroticism is an important factor affecting depression, and neuroticism is associated not only with clinical patients’ depressive symptoms but also with nonclinical patients’ depressed emotions ( Farmer et al, 2002 ; Yang et al, 2016b ; Mu et al, 2020 ; Sami and Naveeda, 2021 ). A study of 900 healthy individual subjects revealed a significant and positive association between neuroticism and depressed emotion ( Jylhä and Isometsä, 2006 ).…”