Department of Clinical, Neuro and Developmental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Amsterdam Public Health, Mental Health, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Front Public Health. 2024 Apr 25;12:1383399. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1383399. eCollection 2024.
Various psychological theories suggest that a supportive family environment protects the mental health of young adults during stressful life events. However, evidence is limited regarding the protective role of family support during a major public health crisis.
To examine the role of family functioning on mental health among Chinese college students during first stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Between January-March 2020, 1,555 college students (44% female, on average 19 years old) from five Chinese universities participated. Participants rated their family functioning on the Family APGAR Index and their mental health on the Psychological Questionnaires for Emergent Events of Public Health, measuring depression, neurasthenia, fear, obsessive-anxiety and hypochondriasis.
Better family functioning was associated with having fewer psychological symptoms. In addition, we identified three mental health profiles related to the severity across the psychological symptoms: Low-level, medium-level and high-level symptom clusters. Latent profile analysis showed that as family function improved, students were, respectively, 16 to 24% more likely to be in the low-level symptom group, compared to being in the medium symptom group or the high-level symptom group.
These results support the notion that family support may act as a psychological buffer for young adults during a large-scale public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.
各种心理学理论表明，一个支持性的家庭环境可以保护年轻人在生活压力事件期间的心理健康。然而，关于在重大公共卫生危机期间家庭支持的保护作用的证据有限。
探讨在 COVID-19 大流行第一阶段，家庭功能对中国大学生心理健康的影响。
2020 年 1 月至 3 月期间，来自五所中国大学的 1555 名大学生（44%为女性，平均年龄 19 岁）参与了研究。参与者使用家庭 APGAR 指数评估家庭功能，使用突发公共卫生事件心理问卷评估心理健康，包括抑郁、神经衰弱、恐惧、强迫性焦虑和疑病症。
更好的家庭功能与较少的心理症状相关。此外，我们还确定了与心理症状严重程度相关的三种心理健康特征：低水平、中水平和高水平症状群。潜在剖面分析表明，随着家庭功能的改善，与处于中症状组或高症状组相比，学生分别有 16%至 24%的可能性处于低症状组。
这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即家庭支持在 COVID-19 等大规模公共卫生危机期间可能是年轻人的心理缓冲。
