Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2022, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (1): 41-46.

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High School Students' Brooding and Depression: The Mediating Role of Perceived Stress and the Moderation Role of Nonreactivity

Lei AN1,Guo-Xiang ZHAO   

  • Received:2021-01-18 Revised:2021-08-27 Online:2022-01-20 Published:2022-01-20
  • Contact: Guo-Xiang ZHAO

高中生强迫思考与抑郁状态:压力知觉的中介作用及不反应的调节作用

安蕾1,赵国祥2   

  1. 1. 河南大学
    2. 河南开封河南大学明伦校区
  • 通讯作者: 赵国祥

Abstract: Adolescence is an important formative developmental stage that lays the groundwork for well-being and mental health in adulthood. However, China has seen a worrying increase in the prevalence of mental health issues among adolescents, particularly high school students. The government has demonstrated the urgent needs for a collective evidence-based effort to improve adolescents’ mental health. Thus, it is important to pay more attention to explore the factors and mechanisms that affect depression of high school students. Rumination is a responding style to distress that involves repetitively focusing on symptoms and on causes and consequences of symptoms, which may predict and maintain depression. While rumination can be divided into brooding and pondering, it is found that brooding taps the negative aspects of self-reflection including a focus on abstract issues and obstacles to overcoming problems. When faced with the high-pressure event like Gaokao, students who have high tendency of brooding are more likely to appraise their problems as overwhelming and blame themselves, leading to greater stress perception and reactivity, which may consequently contribute to increase the risk of depression. Moreover, according to the third wave of cognitive therapy, nonreactivity, the ability to notice or observe internal and external experience without “getting stuck” or fixated, is necessary for reducing perceived stress, by modifying one’s relation to monitored sensation, emotion, and thoughts. Although the effect of nonreactivity on moderating the relationship between monitoring external perceptions and depression, little research has investigated how nonreactivity moderated the relationship between one’ own thinking style and depression. Therefore, the present study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine how nonreactivity would moderate the indirect effect of brooding on symptoms of depression via perceived stress. A sample of 501 high school students (mean age =16 years, SD =0.71) participated in this study. Brooding was measured by brooding subscale of the Ruminative Responses Scale. Perceived stress was assessed with the Perceived Stress Scale. Nonreactivity subscale of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire was used to assess nonreactivity. Depression was assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. All the measures showed good reliability and validity in the present study. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and the SPSS macro PROCESS. The results indicated that: (1) After controlling for gender, perceived stress totally mediated the relationship between brooding and depression. (2) Nonreactivity significantly moderated the indirect effect of brooding on symptoms of depression through perceived stress. In particular, brooding was much more positively related to perceived stress among individuals with low nonreactivity levels than high nonreactivity levels. These findings of the study highlight the mediating role of perceived stress and the moderating role of nonreactivity in the effect of brooding on high school students’ depression. It offers several important implications for mental health education in high schools. First, mental education is necessary to be delivered in early adolescents, which helps them to adopt adaptive responding styles under the great pressure rather than maladaptive styles. Second, the attitude of acceptance should be facilitated in adolescents via mindfulness-based training, which can play a critical role in stress management.

Key words: brooding, perceived stress, nonreactivity, depression, high school students

摘要: 青少年时期是抑郁的高发时期,也是抑郁预防的重要时间窗口。为探讨强迫思考倾向和抑郁状态的关系及其作用机制,采用问卷法对501名高中生进行调查。结果发现:(1)高中生强迫思考倾向完全通过压力知觉正向预测抑郁状态;(2)不反应在强迫思考倾向与压力知觉之间起调节作用,当不反应水平较高时,强迫思考倾向通过压力知觉预测抑郁状态的作用较弱。研究结果有助于揭示强迫思考倾向对高中生抑郁状态的影响及作用机制,对积极预防高中生抑郁具有一定的启示。

关键词: 强迫思考, 压力知觉, 不反应, 抑郁, 高中生