The impact of social-emotional competence on social support in Chinese college students: The mediating effects of interaction culture and conflictual relationships

In a relationship-oriented society such as China, individuals’ development of college students in this country cannot be separated from the social support they receive and the social-emotional competence they possess. However, existing literature has not adequately explored the relationship between these two factors and their influencing mechanisms on individual development. To address this gap, we conducted a survey involving 3,840 college students from ten higher educational institutions in Henan Province and employed structural equation modeling to analyze this dynamic. The findings reveal that (1) Social-emotional competence significantly and positively predicts the level of social support received by college students; (2) Interaction culture and conflictual relationships exert significant effects on the connection between social-emotional competence and students’ social support; (3) our analysis indicates that compared to gender and educational stage as moderating factors, institution type has a more pronounced moderating effect on the relationship between students’ social-emotional competence and the social support they receive.