THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEANING IN LIFE, RESILIENCE, AND DEPRESSION AMONG CHINESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A MEDIATION ANALYSIS
Abstract
Objectives
Little is known about the exact relationship between meaning in life and resilience and depression. The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between meaning in life, resilience, and depression among Chinese university students.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 767 university students aged 18-25 years old in China between November 2021 and January 2022. An online survey collected sociodemographic data and results from the Meaning in life questionnaire (MLQ), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Resilience Inventory (RI-9). The descriptive analyses of demographic characteristics and correlations of the three variables were calculated. The significance of the mediation effect was obtained using a bootstrap approach with IBM SPSS version 22 and PROCESS macro.
Results
The mean age of the students was 20.33 years (SD=1.50), 407( 53.5%) were male, 354(46.5%) were female with 6 missing data for gender. Meaning in life was negatively correlated with depression ((β = -0.213 P<0.01). Meaning in life was positively correlated with resilience (β = .516 P<0.01). Resilience was negatively correlated with depression (β = -.320 P<0.01). The bootstrapping method analysis showed that the indirect effect between meaning in life and depression was significant (IE = -.165; 95% CI = -.218 to -.117).
Conclusions
The findings indicate that the relationship between meaning in life and depression was fully mediated by resilience. An intervention promoting resilience might be useful to prevent depression among people who have a low level of meaning in life.
