The Role of Family Environment in Depressive Symptoms among University Students: A Large Sample Survey in China

58Citations
Citations of this article
192Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Objective: To explore the relationship between family environment and depressive symptoms and to evaluate the influence of hard and soft family environmental factors on depression levels in a large sample of university students in China. Methods: A multi-stage stratified sampling procedure was used to select 6,000 participants. The response rate was 88.8%, with 5,329 students completing the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Family Environment Scale Chinese Version (FES-CV), which was adapted for the Chinese population. Differences between the groups were tested for significance by the Student's t-test; ANOVA was used to test continuous variables. The relationship between soft family environmental factors and BDI were tested by Pearson correlation analysis. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted to model the effects of hard environmental factors and soft environmental factors on depression in university students. Results: A total of 11.8%of students scored above the threshold of moderate depression(BDI≤14). Hard family environmental factors such as parent relationship, family economic status, level of parental literacy and non-intact family structure were associated with depressive symptoms. The soft family environmental factors - conflict and control - were positively associated with depression, while cohesion was negatively related to depressive symptom after controlling for other important associates of depression. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the soft family environment correlates more strongly with depression than the hard family environment. Conclusions: Soft family environmental factors - especially cohesion, conflict and control - appeared to play an important role in the occurrence of depressive symptoms. These findings underline the significance of the family environment as a source of risk factors for depression among university students in China and suggest that family-based interventions and improvement are very important to reduce depression among university students.

References Powered by Scopus

A systematic review of studies of depression prevalence in university students

1179Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Interparental conflict and the children of discord and divorce

993Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

On the validity of the Beck Depression Inventory. A review

849Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Prevalence and correlates of PTSD and depressive symptoms one month after the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in a sample of home-quarantined Chinese university students

569Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Predictors of depressive symptoms in college students: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies

124Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Resilience and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

122Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Yu, Y., Yang, X., Yang, Y., Chen, L., Qiu, X., Qiao, Z., … Bai, B. (2015). The Role of Family Environment in Depressive Symptoms among University Students: A Large Sample Survey in China. PLoS ONE, 10(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143612

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 57

68%

Researcher 13

15%

Lecturer / Post doc 8

10%

Professor / Associate Prof. 6

7%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Psychology 36

41%

Medicine and Dentistry 24

27%

Nursing and Health Professions 15

17%

Social Sciences 13

15%

Article Metrics

Tooltip
Mentions
News Mentions: 1
Social Media
Shares, Likes & Comments: 8

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free