Moderating role of mental health literacy on the relationship between bullying victimization during the life course and symptoms of anxiety and depression in Chinese college students

BMC Public Health

Research

Yi Zhou¹  Jie Hu²  Rong Yang²  Xuexue Huang²  Danlin Li²  Yuhui Wan²  Yanni Xue²  Jun Fang³  Shichen Zhang⁴ 

[1] Department of Psychology, Anhui Medical College, 632Th Furong Road, 230601, Hefei, Anhui Province, People’s Republic of China;MOE Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle, Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, 81Th Meishan Road, 230601, Hefei, Anhui Province, People’s Republic of China;MOE Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle, Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, 81Th Meishan Road, 230601, Hefei, Anhui Province, People’s Republic of China;Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Sojo University, Ikeda 4-22-1, 860-0082, Kumamoto, Japan;School of Public Health and Health Management, Anhui Medical College, 632Th Furong Road, 230601, Hefei, Anhui, People’s Republic of China;School of Public Health and Health Management, Anhui Medical College, 632Th Furong Road, 230601, Hefei, Anhui, People’s Republic of China;

关键词: Bullying;    Mental health literacy;    Anxiety;    Depressive symptoms;    Students;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-023-16326-y

 received in 2023-01-09, accepted in 2023-07-18,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundExposure to persistent bullying victimization across multiple periods results in a high risk of worse consequences. Although amples studies support the association between bullying victimization and symptoms of anxiety and depression, whether mental health literacy can serve as a moderator on this relationship remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the patterns of bullying victimization across the life course, and disentangle the moderating effect of mental health literacy between bullying victimization patterns and symptoms of anxiety and depression in Chinese college students.MethodsA total of 4036 college students were enrolled by cluster sampling from November 2020 to January 2021. Bullying victimization, mental health literacy, and symptoms of anxiety and depression were measured by self-report validated questionnaires. A latent class analysis was applied to identify bullying patterns. The PROCESS program was conducted to analyze whether mental health literacy moderates the link between bullying victimization patterns and symptoms of anxiety and depression.ResultsThree latent patterns of bullying victimization were identified as follows: persistent bullying pattern (6.2%), moderate bullying pattern (10.5%), and low bullying pattern (83.3%). Logisitic regression analysis of anxiety and depressive symptoms indicated that compared with low bullying pattern, persistent bullying pattern had the highest risk. Specifically, mental health literacy moderated the association between bullying victimization pattern and anxiety symptoms (B = -0.039, P < 0.05).ConclusionsIt is important for practitioners to examine bullying victimization across the life course concurrently rather than a single period in isolation. Interventions and research should enhance mental health literacy to improve the mental health in college students with a history of bullying victimization.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

40517_2023_261_Article_IEq43.gif

Fig. 2

40517_2023_261_Article_IEq30.gif

13690_2023_1154_Article_IEq16.gif

13690_2023_1154_Article_IEq13.gif

Fig. 2