Hou Tianya, Xie Yawei, Mao Xiaofei, Liu Ying, Zhang Jianguo, Wen Jing, Chen Yan, Luo Zhechao, Cai Wenpeng
Faculty of Psychology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
College of Basic Medical Sciences, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2021 Aug 23;12:740094. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.740094. eCollection 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted people's life across the globe. In a public health crisis, rural adolescents are more prone to mental health problems. The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms among Chinese rural adolescents during the COVID-19 outbreak, and examine the association between perceived social support and depressive symptoms and its underlying mechanisms. Perceived Social Support Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were administrated to 826 rural adolescents from Anhui Province, China, amid the COVID-19 crisis. Mackinnon's four-step procedure was employed to examine the mediating effect, while Hayes PROCESS macro was utilized to test the moderated mediation model. The results showed the rate of depressive symptoms among rural adolescents in China was 77.6% during the outbreak of COVID-19. Female left-behind students and non-left-behind students from disrupted families experienced more depressive symptoms (all < 0.05). Loneliness mediated the association between perceive social support and depressive symptoms and the indirect effect was stronger in left-behind adolescents in comparison to non-left-behind adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Depressive symptoms are extremely prevalent among Chinese rural adolescents during the COVID-19 outbreak, and perceived social support plays a protective role against depressive symptoms. Chinese rural adolescents, especially left-behind students, could benefit from the interventions aimed at enhancing the perceived social support and reducing loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
新冠疫情对全球人民的生活产生了巨大影响。在公共卫生危机中，农村青少年更容易出现心理健康问题。本研究旨在调查新冠疫情期间中国农村青少年抑郁症状的患病率，并探讨感知社会支持与抑郁症状之间的关联及其潜在机制。在新冠疫情期间，对来自中国安徽省的826名农村青少年施测了感知社会支持量表、加州大学洛杉矶分校孤独量表和患者健康问卷-9。采用麦金农四步法检验中介效应，同时使用海斯PROCESS宏程序检验调节中介模型。结果显示，新冠疫情爆发期间，中国农村青少年抑郁症状的发生率为77.6%。女性留守儿童和来自破裂家庭的非留守儿童经历了更多的抑郁症状（均P<0.05）。孤独在感知社会支持与抑郁症状之间起中介作用，在新冠疫情期间，与非留守儿童相比，留守儿童的间接效应更强。在新冠疫情爆发期间，抑郁症状在中国农村青少年中极为普遍，感知社会支持对抑郁症状起保护作用。中国农村青少年，尤其是留守儿童，可能会从旨在增强感知社会支持和减少孤独感的干预措施中受益。
