Resilience, Dispositional Hope, and Psychological Well-Being Among Chinese College Students: Perceived Social Support as a Mediator

Research on the psychological well-being of college students has been gaining significant attention. Over the past decade, there has been a considerable rise in anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and suicide attempts among Chinese college students. This study used cross-sectional data to understand how perceived social support mediates the relationships between psychological well-being, dispositional hope, and resilience. The participants involved 776 students (475 females and 301 males) from five colleges in China. Four questionnaires were used to collect data. PLS-SEM analysis demonstrated that dispositional hope and resilience directly enhance psychological well-being and indirectly influence it through increased perceived social support. The bootstrapping analysis further revealed that perceived social support partially mediates the relationships between resilience and psychological well-being and dispositional hope and psychological well-being. These findings extend previous work on the complex interplay between psychological strengths and well-being, with potential implications. The limitations—including its cross-sectional design, reliance on self-reported data, and restricted sample—underscore the need for future longitudinal research to better understand causal and reciprocal relationships.