Associations of family relationships and negative life events with depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents: A cross-sectional study

Objectives

The main objective of this study was to explore the associations of family relationships and negative life events with depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents.

Methods

A cross-sectional study of 3081 middle school students was conducted in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, China. Students were asked to complete questionnaires regarding family relationships, negative life events, and depressive symptoms. A mediation analysis was carried out using a multiple regression analysis and the PROCESS macro method.

Results

Of all participants, 19.9% reported experiencing depressive symptoms. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 13.0% and 29.2% in participants with good and poor parental relationships, and the prevalence of depressive symptoms was 11.4% and 30.9% in participants with closed and alienated parental-child relationships, respectively. Parental relationships, parental-child relationships, and negative life events were positively correlated with depressive symptoms. The effect of parental relationships on depressive symptoms was fully mediated by negative life events (Effect = 0.052, 95% CI = [0.023, 0.082]), while the effect of parent-child relationships on adolescent depressive symptoms was partially mediated by negative life events (Effect = 0.075, 95% CI = [0.048, 0.104]).

Conclusions

Our results showed a high prevalence of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. Poor family relationships may have the potential to increase the risk of depressive symptoms, and they could affect depressive symptoms through negative life events.