The Mediating Roles of Future Work Self and Hope on the Association Between Perceived Social Support and Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Vocational School Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Purpose

Depressive symptoms are serious mental health problems, which are harmful for adolescents’ physical and psychological development. Limited studies have focused on depressive symptoms of vocational high school students, who are more susceptible to mental health problems than high school students. Based on the main effect model of social support and self-regulation theory, the current study aims at exploring two potential mediating roles of hope and future work self on the relationship between perceived social support and depressive symptoms among vocational high school students by a cross-sectional study.

Participants and Methods

A total of 521 vocational high school students aged 14–21 (M= 16.45; SD= 0.91) participated in the survey. There were 266 males (51.1%) and 255 females (48.9%). The multidimensional scale of perceived social support, the future work self scale, the children’s hope scale, and the center for epidemiologic studies depression scale were applied in the study.

Results

The results revealed that: (1) perceived social support, future work self, and hope were negatively related to depressive symptoms (r = −0.25 to −0.35, p < 0.001); (2) students who perceived more social support have fewer depressive symptoms (β = −0.22, p < 0.001); (3) perceived social support predicted a more salient future work self and then was associated with higher levels of hope, which in turn, was related to lower levels of depressive symptoms (β = −0.02, and 95% CI = [−0.035, −0.005]).

Conclusion

Perceived social support was the protective factor against vocational school students’ depressive symptoms. More specifically, stronger perceived social support predicted a more salient future work self, which promoted high level of hope, and ultimately decreased vocational school students’ depressive symptoms. The findings provide enlighten implications for interventions on depressive symptoms among vocational high school students.

Keywords:

• perceived social support
• future work self
• hope
• depressive symptoms
• vocational high school students

Ethical Approval

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the local Ethics Committee of the School of Psychology, South China Normal University (SCNU-PSY-2022-041).

Disclosure

Yingshi He and Qing Zeng are co-first authors for this study. The authors declare no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Postgraduate Research and Innovation Fund from School of Psychology, South China Normal University: “Research on Vocational High School Students’ Career Adaptability: Based on Career Construction Theory” [Grant Numbers: PSY-SCNU202136].