International Journal of Research Studies in Psychology
CollabWritive Special Issue
2024 Volume 10 Issue 1
Available Online: 15 July 2024
Author/s:
Jiang, Jun
Graduate School, Lyceum of the Philippines University – Batangas, Philippines
Tianfu New Area Aviation & Tourism College, 620000, Sichuan, China (869359191@qq.com)
Abstract:
As a common problem in the world, school bullying has always attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad. Many studies have shown that bullying can have a negative impact on victims. Being bullied can affect the daily performance and academic performance of teenagers, and victims of bullying are also prone to negative emotional experiences such as emotional depression and anxiety. Previous studies on the relationship between bullying and depression in adolescents have focused on middle school students, and paid less attention to the impact of bullying on depression among college students. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between bullying and depression levels among college students. In addition, social support can alleviate the psychological burden of stressful events, so this paper explores whether social support plays a moderating role in the relationship between bullying and depressive symptoms in college students, and whether different sources of social support can play a moderating role in the impact of bullying on depression in college students. In this study, 448 Chinese college students were selected to conduct a questionnaire survey, of which 282 were private colleges and 166 were public institutions of Sichuan Nursing Vocational College. The questionnaires used were Delaware Bullying Victims Scale (Student Version), Comprehension of social support questionnaires, and Depression scale for flow adjustment center to analyze the impact of past school bullying experience and social support on their mental health. The investigators assessed its effectiveness through reliability and validity tests. The study found that:(1) Bullying victimization was significantly correlated with depressive symptoms of college students. Specifically, high school students who were bullied at school scored higher levels of depression; (2) Social support moderated bullying-related depressive symptoms, and college students who were bullied but received higher social support had lower depression scores than those who received less social support. In summary, this study found that bullying can affect the depression level of college students, and social support plays a moderating role between the two, which can provide a basis for the prevention and intervention of school bullying, which is conducive to reducing the harm caused by bullying, creating a good school atmosphere, and promoting the healthy development of students.
Keywords: college students, bullying, depression, social support, moderating effect
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsp.2024.003
Cite this article:
Jiang, J. (2024). Bullying, symptoms of depression, and social support among Chinese college students. International Journal of Research Studies in Psychology, 10(1), 33-50. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsp.2024.003