Depressive symptoms among first-year Chinese undergraduates: The roles of socio-demographics, coping style, and social support

The prevalence of depressive symptoms among Chinese university students seems to be increasing. However, little research has been conducted in order to examine whether and how socioeconomic factors, coping style and social support affect depressive symptoms among university freshmen. The present study aimed to explore these effects on a sample of freshmen from single- and multi-child households in urban and rural environments. A total of 2,563 university freshmen (883 women, 1,680 men; mean age, 18.27 yr) from three universities in China completed a demographic questionnaire, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Social Support Rating Scale, and Coping Style Questionnaire. Pearson correlation coefficients suggested that gender and place of origin affected students' coping styles, social support, and depression. Depression was negatively associated with problem-solving and help-seeking, but positively associated with self-blaming, fantasizing, avoidance, and rationalization. Logistic regression showed that depression was predicted by engaging in self-blame and fantasizing, being female, coming from a rural area, being an only child, lacking subjective and social support, having low skills at problem-solving and help-seeking. These findings may help psychological service providers identify first-year students at risk of depressive symptoms and provide them with systematic, gender-specific interventions that pay specific attention to self-blaming and fantasizing coping style.