Social support and depression among adolescents in Beijing and Harbin: mediating of hope

Objective To explore the relationship among social support,hope and depression among adolescents in Beijing and Harbin,and to provide a reference for possible prevention for depression among middle school students.Methods A sample of 1 152 middle and high school students were administered with Social Support Rating Scale,Adolescents' Hope Scale and the Beck's depression scale-Ⅱ.The data collected was analyzed by variance analysis and relevance analysis,and a structural equation model was established by Mplus 7.0.Results The depression detection rate for adolescents was 20.75% (239/1 152).Female students' depression was significantly higher than male's(F=5.54,P<0.01).Grade 3 high school students' depression was significanfly higher than junior one and two middle school students.Grade 2 high school students' depression was significantly higher than junior one middle school students(F=4.12,P<0.01).Depression was negatively correlated with social support and hope(P<0.05).Social support was positively correlated with hope(r=0.30,P<0.05).Hope played a mediating role between social support and depression(x2/df=3.87,CFI=0.90,TLI=0.91,RMSEA=0.05,SRMR=0.04,AIC=27 427.26,BIC=27 802.30),and the mediating effects of hope accounted for 36.17% of the overall effects.Conclusion Social support can directly impact the depression among middle school students,and meanwhile affect depression by hope.