Prospective relationships between college adjustment, self-esteem, and mental health status among Chinese undergraduates

Abstract

Objective: This three-wave longitudinal study tested the prospective relationships between college adjustment, self-esteem, and mental health status (ie, subjective well-being, anxiety, and depression). Participants: The study recruited 265 Chinese undergraduate students. Methods: Demographic, college adjustment, self-esteem, and mental health status data were collected. Results: College adjustment and self-esteem were moderate in magnitude and maintained a reasonable stability over time. College adjustment and self-esteem at Year 1 and Year 2, and mental health status at Year 3, were significantly correlated with each other. College adjustment at Year 1 and Year 2, and self-esteem at Year 1 significantly predicted mental health status at Year 3. Conclusions: Interventions to improve self-esteem and college adjustment may benefit long-term mental health outcomes.

Keywords:

• Chinese undergraduates
• college adjustment
• mental health status
• prospective relationships
• self-esteem

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of China and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Wenzhou Medical University.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Youth Project of National Social Science Foundation of China (CBA170257).