Associations between parenting styles and depressive symptoms in college students: a sequential mediation model and a preliminary randomized study

Objective To explore the mechanisms underlying depressive symptoms among college students, develop a targeted intervention based on the proposed model, and provide empirical support for university mental health education. Methods This study examined the relationships between positive and negative parenting styles and depressive symptoms among college students, with interpersonal efficacy and meaning in life serving as sequential mediators. Positive parenting included emotional warmth, while negative parenting involved rejection and overprotection. To further assess the feasibility of targeting a key component within this model, the study comprised two sequential sub-studies. In Study 1, 1,262 college students from a university in Guizhou Province completed measures of parenting styles (the short-form Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran, Chinese version; Cronbach’s α=0.67-0.88), interpersonal efficacy (College Students’ Interpersonal Efficacy Scale,α=0.75), meaning in life (The Meaning in Life Questionnaire, α=0.86), and depression (Center for Epidemiological Survey, Depression Scale, α=0.88). A chain mediation analysis was conducted using Model 6 of the PROCESS macro in SPSS. In Study 2, 35 participants with high depression scores and low interpersonal efficacy were selected from Study 1 and randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n=17, receiving seven weekly group counseling sessions, each lasting approximately 90 minutes) or a control group (n=18, receiving no intervention). After the intervention, 3 participants dropped out from the experimental group and 4 from the control group, resulting in 14 participants in each group for the final analysis. A 3 (Time: pre-intervention, post-intervention, 3-month follow-up) × 2 (Group: experimental, control) two-factor mixed design was employed, and repeated measures ANOVA was used to evaluate the intervention effects. Results In Study 1, interpersonal efficacy and meaning in life played significant chain-mediating roles in the relationship between parenting styles and depressive symptoms. In Study 2, a significant main effect of the group on interpersonal efficacy was found, with the intervention group showing significantly higher scores than the control group. A significant group-by-time interaction effect was observed: the intervention group exhibited marked post-intervention gains relative to baseline and the control group, with these gains diminishing but remaining above baseline at the 3-month follow-up. No significant effects of the intervention on depression were found. Conclusion The findings support the plausibility of a model in which parenting styles, interpersonal efficacy, meaning in life, and depressive symptoms are associated in college students. In the preliminary randomized study, the intervention was associated with improvement in interpersonal efficacy, but no between-group effect was demonstrated for depressive symptoms. These results should therefore be interpreted cautiously and considered preliminary.