Depression and Perceived Social Support among Unemployed Youths in China: Investigating the Roles of Emotion-Regulation Difficulties and Self-Efficacy

Zhiya Hua and Dandan Ma
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Zhiya Hua: School of Government, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai 201701, China
Dandan Ma: School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: In recent years, the issue of youth unemployment has begun to emerge in China. Unemployed young people are at high risk of depression and other mental health problems. The present study investigates influential factors related to depression and examines the possible mediating effects of difficulties in emotion regulation and self-efficacy between perceived social support and depressive symptoms among unemployed youths in China. Through community recruitment, 511 unemployed young people from Shanghai participated in this cross-sectional survey. The results demonstrate that the prevalence of probable depression in the sample was 49.3% (95% CI: 45.0–53.7%). Moreover, we found that both the perceived social support and self-efficacy were significant negative predictors of depression, whereas difficulties in emotion regulation were positive predictors of depression. In addition, the analysis results indicate that difficulties in emotion regulation and self-efficacy partially mediate the relationship between perceived social support and depression. Overall, this cross-sectional study reveals that depression and mental health problems among China’s unemployed youths are concerning while identifying emotion-regulation difficulties as a risk factor for these and social support and self-efficacy as protective factors, all of which warrant our attention in preventing and intervening with cases of youth depression.

Keywords: depression; perceived social support; emotion-regulation difficulties; self-efficacy; unemployed youths; unemployment; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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