Individual, Peer, and Family Correlates of Depressive Symptoms among College Students in Hong Kong

Nelson W. Y. Tam (), Sylvia Y. C. L. Kwok () and Minmin Gu ()
Additional contact information
Nelson W. Y. Tam: Department of Social and Behavioral Science, The City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 518057, China
Sylvia Y. C. L. Kwok: Department of Social and Behavioral Science, The City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 518057, China
Minmin Gu: Research Institute of Social Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: In this study, an ecological model and developmental psychopathology theory focusing on an ontogenic system (hopelessness) and microsystems (peer alienation and childhood abuse and trauma) was adopted to examine the individual, peer, and family correlates of depressive symptoms among college Chinese students in Hong Kong, China. A cross-sectional survey research design with a convenience sampling procedure was used to examine a sample of college students ( n = 786) aged 18 to 21 years old in Hong Kong. Among them, 352 respondents (44.8%) reported having depressive symptoms, with a Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) score of 14 or above. The results of this study indicated that childhood abuse and trauma, peer alienation, and hopelessness were positively related to depressive symptoms. The underlying arguments and implications were discussed. The study results provided further support for the ecological model and the developmental psychopathology theory on the predictive roles of individual, peer, and family correlates of adolescent depression.

Keywords: ecological model; individual; peer; and family correlates; college students; depressive symptoms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4304/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4304/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:5:p:4304-:d:1083147

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().