Family SES and Depression among College Students in China: Mediating Effects of Self-efficacy and Interpersonal Relationships

• In Event: 1283 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 15. Violence and Distress

Abstract

While the relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and depression has been examined intensively as socioeconomic inequality and the influence of family SES on mental health has become an increasingly prominent topic of study, the pathways linking family SES to depression still remain underexplored. In order to understand the family SES-depression relationship in young adulthoods under a life course perspective, this study analyzed the first wave (2009) of the Beijing College Students Panel Survey (BCSPS) data using a structural equation model. This study found that the direct effect of family SES on college student depression was not statistically significant; instead, the overall indirect effect was significant. The influence of family SES on young adult depression was captured through two pathways: via self-efficacy and via self-efficacy and then interpersonal relationships. These pathways were also validated in both male and female subgroups, indicating that the SES-depression pathway model does not vary across sexes. There was also clear evidence that self-efficacy was a key mediating factor in the SES-depression relationship among college students. These results suggest that the negative consequences of low family socioeconomic status on mental health can be mitigated by offering campus-level programs that help students build and develop self-efficacy beliefs in early adulthood.

Author

• YIWEN WANG, University of Texas-Austin