Gomez-Baya Diego, Gaspar de Matos Margarida, Wiium Nora
Department of Social, Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain.
School of Human Sciences, Portuguese Catholic University & ISAMB, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
BMC Psychol. 2025 Jul 22;13(1):814. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-03149-2.
Positive Youth Development (PYD) has been associated with positive results in the transition to adulthood. Within the 5Cs model of PYD, the Caring dimension has been defined as the ability to feel sympathy and empathy towards others. However, the literature has shown some controversial results on the role of Caring in the psychological adjustment of young people. The aim of this study was to analyze the mediating role of strategies for coping with negative affect (i.e., distraction and depressive rumination) and strategies for coping with positive affect (i.e., dampening and positive rumination) in the relationship between Caring and depressive symptoms. We examined gender differences as well.
A cross-sectional self-report study was carried out in 2021, with a sample of 1,040 young people (75.5% females; Age range = 18-28; M = 20.47, SD = 3.08), enrolled at 11 universities in Spain. Multiple partial mediation analysis was performed to examine the mediation of responses to positive and negative affect in the relationship between Caring and depression, and a path analysis was developed to integrate gender effects.
The results indicated that Caring was positively associated with more depressive symptoms through maladaptive affect responses, i.e., more depressive rumination, more inhibition of positive affect, less distraction and less positive rumination. On the contrary, a more adaptive regulation of the affect was associated with less depression. Gender differences were observed, where women scored higher in Caring, depressive rumination and dampening.
Some practical implications may be derived from these results. The role of Caring as an expression of sympathy and empathy can have a protective effect on psychological adjustment through the use adaptive skills to manage positive and negative affect. Programs integrating Caring dimension of PYD and emotional regulation skills training should be designed in university context, so that psychological adjustment can be maximized among university students and that the students, especially, females can be able to care for others as well as themselves.
积极青少年发展（PYD）与向成年期过渡的积极结果相关。在PYD的5C模型中，关爱维度被定义为对他人产生同情和同理心的能力。然而，文献显示关爱在年轻人心理调适方面的作用存在一些有争议的结果。本研究的目的是分析应对消极情绪的策略（即分心和抑郁沉思）以及应对积极情绪的策略（即抑制和积极沉思）在关爱与抑郁症状关系中的中介作用。我们还研究了性别差异。
2021年进行了一项横断面自我报告研究，样本为1040名年轻人（75.5%为女性；年龄范围=18 - 28岁；M = 20.47，SD = 3.08），他们就读于西班牙的11所大学。进行了多重部分中介分析，以检验对积极和消极情绪的反应在关爱与抑郁关系中的中介作用，并开展了路径分析以整合性别效应。
结果表明，关爱通过适应不良的情绪反应与更多的抑郁症状呈正相关，即更多的抑郁沉思、对积极情绪的更多抑制、更少的分心和更少的积极沉思。相反，更适应性的情绪调节与更少的抑郁相关。观察到了性别差异，女性在关爱、抑郁沉思和抑制方面得分更高。
这些结果可能具有一些实际意义。关爱作为同情和同理心的一种表达，通过运用适应性技能来管理积极和消极情绪，可能对心理调适具有保护作用。应在大学环境中设计整合PYD关爱维度和情绪调节技能培训的项目，以使大学生的心理调适达到最大化，并且学生，尤其是女性，能够既关爱他人也关爱自己。
