The Relationship Between Corruption Perception and Depression: A Multiple Mediation Model

Figures & data

Table 1 Descriptive Statistics of All Variables (N = 7845)

Characteristics	N	%	Mean	Standard Deviation
Corruption perception			6.91	2.48
Score (< 5)	1045	13.32
Score (5 +)	6800	86.68
Trust in government			4.70	2.46
Score (< 5)	2771	35.32
Score (5 +)	5074	64.68
Online news consumption			3.84	2.87
Score (< 3)	3142	40.05
Score (3 +)	4703	59.95
Depression			13.32	3.54
Score (< 16)	5892	75.11
Score (16 +)	1953	24.89
Sex
Female	3840	48.95
Male	4005	51.05
Age			32.68	8.03
Below 25	1219	15.54
25 to 45	6295	80.24
45 to 65	293	3.73
65 and over	38	0.49
Marital status
Not in a marriage	1964	25.04
In a marriage	5881	74.96
Education			1.97	0.55
Below junior high school	1312	16.72
Above junior high school, and below undergraduate	5470	69.73
Above undergraduate	1063	13.55
Area of residence registration
Rural	5592	71.28
Urban	2253	28.72
Subjective income level			2.83	0.92
Very low	724	9.23
Relatively low	1538	19.60
Fair	4260	54.30
Relatively high	974	12.42
Very high	349	4.45

Table 2 Correlations Between Key Variables (N = 7845)

Variables	Corruption Perception	Trust in Government	Online News Consumption	Depression
Corruption perception	1.000
Trust in government	−0.191*** (0.000)	1.000
Online news consumption	0.085*** (0.000)	0.048*** (0.000)	1.000
Depression	0.046* (0.019)	−0.140*** (0.000)	−0.068*** (0.000)	1.000

Notes: t values in parentheses. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001.

Table 3 Associations of Corruption Perception and Depression (N = 7845)

Variables	β Coefficients	t values	p values
Corruption perception	0.065***	4.10	0.000
Sex	−0.419***	−5.28	0.000
Age	0.024***	4.09	0.000
Marital status	−0.526***	−5.05	0.000
Education	−0.533***	−6.68	0.000
Area of residence registration	−0.266**	−2.81	0.005
Subjective income level	−0.553***	−12.87	0.000

Note: **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Figure 1 Multiple mediation model with path coefficients.

Note: *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001.

Table 4 Analysis of the Mediating Effect of Trust in Government and Online News Consumption in the Influence of Corruption Perception on Depression (N = 7845)

	Observed Coefficient	Bootstrap Standard Error	LLCI	ULCI
Indirect effect via trust in government	0.030***	0.004	0.022	0.037
Indirect effect via online news consumption	−0.003**	0.001	−0.006	−0.001
Total indirect effect	0.026***	0.004	0.018	0.034

Note: **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Abbreviations: LLCI, lower level for confidence interval; ULCI, upper level for confidence interval.