Effects of Depression, Suicidal Ideation, and Gratitude on Flourishing of High School Students: A Moderated Mediation Model of Growth Mindset

Abstract

Introduction. The subjective well-being index of Korean adolescents has been the lowest among OECD countries. High school students also have the lowest sense of happiness among adolescents. Therefore, this study was to seek a plan to increase the level of happiness of high school students in Korea. Study participants and methods. Participants of this study were 386 high school students enrolled in high schools located in two cities in Chungcheongnam-do. There were 271 (70.4%) males and 114 (29.6%) females. Regarding their grades, there were 245 (63.5%) in the third year of high school, 139 (36.0%) in the first year of high school, and 2 (0.5%) in the second year. For data analysis, SPSS 25.0 and PROCESS macro 3.5.3 were used, and frequency analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and moderated mediation effect analysis were performed. Results. First, flourishing had negative correlations with depression and suicidal ideation, but positive correlations with a growth mindset and gratitude. The correlation coefficient between depression and suicidal ideation (r=0.602, p<0.01) was the highest, followed by that between gratitude and flourishing correlation (r=0.506, p<0.01). Second, a moderated mediation role of growth mindset in the effect of depression on flourishing through suicidal ideation and gratitude was verified. Conditional indirect effects of depression → suicidal ideation → gratitude → flourishing were significant when the growth mindset was low (-0.7390, -0.1323-0.0353), medium (0.0000, -0.1148-0.0311), and high (0.7390, -0.1006-0.0257). Conclusions. We found that the growth mindset plays a moderated mediation role in promoting flourishing by increasing the gratitude of high school students with depression and suicidal ideation. These results will help improve the happiness of high school students who suffer from entering to college and getting a job. In addition, these results will be used as an important academic basis that can be applied to the development and implementation of programs that can increase flourishing for high school students.