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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1510255
This article is part of the Research Topic The Intersection of Psychology, Healthy Behaviors, and its Outcomes View all 51 articles

Network analysis of meaning in life, perceived social support, and depressive symptoms among vocational undergraduate students

Provisionally accepted
Zhang Sensen Zhang Sensen 1,2Zhang Wenhua Zhang Wenhua 2,3Yong Shaohong Yong Shaohong 1,2*Chen Jiatai Chen Jiatai 4
  • 1 Faculty of Business Administration, Guangzhou Institute of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China
  • 2 Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China
  • 3 Zhoukou Vocational and Technical College, Zhoukou, China
  • 4 University of Exeter, Exeter, England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Depression poses a considerable personal and public health problem, particularly in the post-epidemic era. The present study aimed to investigate the association between meaning in life (MIL) and perceived social support (PSS) with depressive symptoms among vocational undergraduate students, employing a network analysis approach to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying pathways and to prevent the progression of depressive symptoms into disorders.Methods: A total of 1367 Chinese vocational undergraduates (Mage = 20.1, SD = 1.6; 44.7% female) were recruited and were asked to complete a series of questionnaires, including the meaning in life questionnaire, perceived social support scale, and patient health questionnaire. The regularized partial correlation network was estimated. The partial correlations between nodes were calculated as edges.Moreover, network comparison tests were conducted to compare three subnetworks based on different levels of depression (minimal, subthreshold, and moderate/severe).The top strength nodes within each network were identified as sleep and motor in minimal group, anhedonia and concentration in subthreshold group, and anhedonia and sleep in moderate/severe group. Additionally, the bridge strength nodes were determined as MIL-3, MIL-4, sleep, guilt, and school in minimal group; MIL-4, anhedonia, suicide, and friend in subthreshold group; MIL-9, MIL-7, anhedonia, sleep, and family in moderate/severe group. Furthermore, network comparison tests showed significant differences in centrality (all p < 0.05), while network invariance remained constant across groups. Notably, the accuracy and stability coefficients for all network structures were greater than 0.5, indicating stable and reliable results.These findings elucidate specific pathways and potential central nodes for interactions of MIL or PSS with depressive symptoms at different levels of depression, providing valuable insights for targeted prevention and intervention strategies.

    Keywords: meaning in life, perceived social support, depressive symptoms, Network analysis, prevention

    Received: 17 Oct 2024; Accepted: 10 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Sensen, Wenhua, Shaohong and Jiatai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yong Shaohong, Faculty of Business Administration, Guangzhou Institute of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.