Association between psychological capital and depressive symptoms during COVID-19: The mediating role of perceived social support and the moderating effect of employment pressure

Yalian Huang; Xin Lin; Jian Yang; Hefei Bai; Ping Tang; Guangzhe Frank Yuan

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1036172

Association between psychological capital and depressive symptoms during COVID-19: The mediating role of perceived social support and the moderating effect of employment pressure

Front Public Health. 2023 Mar 9:11:1036172. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1036172. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yalian Huang¹, Xin Lin², Jian Yang³, Hefei Bai², Ping Tang¹, Guangzhe Frank Yuan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Sichuan Research Center of Applied Psychology, Chengdu Medical College, The First Affiliated Hospital, Chengdu, China.
² School of Psychology, Chengdu Medical College, The First Affiliated Hospital, Chengdu, China.
³ School of Clinical Medicine, Chengdu Medical College, The First Affiliated Hospital, Chengdu, China.
⁴ Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States.

Abstract

Introduction: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affects individuals' mental health that can result in fear of getting COVID-19 infection and depression. Prior research has demonstrated that both psychological capital and perceived social support are related to the severity of depression. Yet no study explored the direction of associations between these factors. This undermines the validity of psychological capital as a basis for health interventions.

Methods: This study aimed to explore the association between psychological capital, perceived social support, employment pressure, and depressive symptoms during COVID-19. A cross-sectional design was employed in a sample of 708 Chinese senior medical students who were asked to complete an online questionnaire survey.

Results: Results indicated that psychological capital negatively predicts depressive symptoms (β = -0.55, p < 0.001); perceived social support plays a mediating role in the impact of psychological capital on depressive symptoms (indirect = -0.11, SE = 0.02, p < 0.001, 95%CI [-0.16, -0.07]), and these associations were moderated by employment pressure. Medical students with high employment pressure, the negative impact of psychological capital on depressive symptoms was statistically significant (β = -0.37, SE = 0.05, p < 0.001, 95% CI [-0.046, -0.27]); when the perceived employment pressure was low, the negative effect of psychological capital on depressive symptoms, although significant, was stronger (β = -0.49, SE = 0.04, p < 0.001, 95% CI [-0.57, -0.40]).

Discussion: The current study highlights that it is of great significance to address Chinese medical students' employment pressure and improve their mental health during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Keywords: depression; employment pressure; medical students; moderated mediation; psychological health.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression / epidemiology
Employment
Humans
Social Support

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Project number 22XSH013), the Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Department Project (Project number 20ZDYF2396), and the Sichuan Research Center for Applied Psychology (Project number CSXL-202A12).