Influence of Student Depression on the Spread of Public Opinion in University

Abstract

In this study, we examined the impact of college students' mental health on their social behavior. A social network was identified based on the behavior of college students sharing a meal. We analyzed the impact of depression on the structure of this network and found that students without obvious depressive symptoms, based on the test data of the SCL-90 Assessment Scale, were better at socializing than students with obvious depressive symptoms. We proposed a public opinion spreading model on social networks and formulated a heterogeneous mean-field theory to describe it. Further, using computer simulation experiments, we studied the impact of students' mental health on the process of information propagation in college. The results of the experiments showed that students without obvious depressive symptoms were more likely to receive information than students with obvious depressive symptoms. Based on the results of our study, college psychological consultants can actively identify students who may be at risk of mental illness and give them attention and guidance.