Emotion reactivity and depression among music students: The mediating role of distress tolerance

The relationship between emotion reactivity-indexed by emotional sensitivity, intensity, and persistence-and depression has been widely examined among university students. However, the associations among emotion reactivity, distress tolerance, and depression remain insufficiently understood in music students. Using cross-sectional questionnaire data from 2777 music students enrolled at multiple universities in China, this study employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the relationships among these variables, including the indirect association through distress tolerance and potential gender differences. The results showed that emotion reactivity was positively associated with depression and negatively associated with distress tolerance, whereas distress tolerance was negatively associated with depression. Mediation analysis further identified a significant indirect association between emotion reactivity and depression through distress tolerance, supporting a complementary partial mediation pattern. Multigroup analysis revealed statistically significant but small gender differences in selected relationships. However, comparisons involving depression should be interpreted cautiously because compositional invariance was not established for this construct. Overall, these findings clarify the associations among emotion reactivity, distress tolerance, and depression in music students and highlight distress tolerance as a potential focus for future intervention research among students in arts-related disciplines.