The mediating roles of coping styles and academic burnout in the relationship between stressors and depressive symptoms among Chinese postgraduates

Hong Shi; Hanfang Zhao; Minfu He; Zheng Ren; Shixun Wang; Li Cui; Jieyu Zhao; Wenjun Li; Yachen Wei; Wenjing Zhang; Ziqiang Chen; Hongjian Liu; Xiumin Zhang

doi:10.7717/peerj.16064

The mediating roles of coping styles and academic burnout in the relationship between stressors and depressive symptoms among Chinese postgraduates

PeerJ. 2023 Sep 18:11:e16064. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16064. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hong Shi¹, Hanfang Zhao¹, Minfu He¹, Zheng Ren¹, Shixun Wang¹, Li Cui¹, Jieyu Zhao¹, Wenjun Li¹, Yachen Wei¹, Wenjing Zhang¹, Ziqiang Chen¹, Hongjian Liu², Xiumin Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, Jilin University School of Public Health, Changchun, China.
² Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Jilin University School of Public Health, Changchun, China.

Abstract

Background: Since few studies have incorporated factors like stressors, coping styles, and academic burnout into the same model to analyze their impacts on depressive symptoms, this research attempts to establish an optimal structural model to explore the direct and indirect effects of these factors on depressive symptoms.

Methods: A total of 266 postgraduates completed questionnaires regarding coping styles, academic burnout, stressors, and depressive symptoms. The path analysis was applied for investigating the roles of coping styles and academic burnout in mediating the relationship between stressors and depressive symptoms.

Results: The total and direct effects of stressors on depressive symptoms were 0.53 and 0.31, respectively. The proportion of the direct effect of stressors on depressive symptoms to its total effect amounted to 58.50%. The indirect effects of academic burnout, positive coping style, and negative coping style on the association between stressors and depressive symptoms were 0.11, 0.04, and 0.03, taking up 20.75%, 7.55%, and 5.66% of the total effect, respectively. The serial indirect effect of positive coping style and academic burnout was 0.02, accounting for 3.77% of the total effect, while that of negative coping style and academic burnout was 0.02, taking up 3.77% of the total effect.

Conclusions: Coping styles and academic burnout chain jointly mediate the relationship between stressors and depressive symptoms among postgraduates. Thus, encouraging postgraduates to tackle stress positively may reduce the likelihood of the development of academic burnout and further reduce depressive symptoms.

Keywords: Academic burnout; Chinese; Coping styles; Depressive symptoms; Postgraduates; Stressors.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Adaptation, Psychological*
Asian People
Burnout, Psychological* / prevention & control
Burnout, Psychological* / psychology
Depression* / prevention & control
Depression* / psychology
East Asian People* / psychology
Health Surveys
Humans
Risk Factors
Stress, Psychological* / psychology
Students* / psychology

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Science and Technology Department of Jilin Province, China (Grant Number: 20200101133FG). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.