Volume 95, Issue 7 pp. 1463-1477
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Future self-continuity and depression among college students: The role of presence of meaning and perceived social support

Lulu Xue

Lulu Xue

Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

Contribution: Data curation, Formal analysis, ​Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing

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Yun Yan

Yun Yan

Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

Contribution: Validation, Writing - review & editing

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Hang Fan

Hang Fan

Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

Contribution: Validation, Writing - review & editing

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Liping Zhang

Liping Zhang

Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

Contribution: Validation, Writing - review & editing

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Siyun Wang

Siyun Wang

Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

Contribution: Validation, Writing - review & editing

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Lipeng Chen

Corresponding Author

Lipeng Chen

Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

Correspondence Lipeng Chen, Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, No. 59 Zhongguancun St, Haidian District, Beijing 100872, China.

Email: [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing - review & editing

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First published: 16 July 2023
Citations: 7

Abstract

Introduction

Future self-continuity has been shown to have a protective effect against depression. This study aims to investigate the longitudinal relationship between future self-continuity and depression among college students, and to explore the mediating role of the presence of meaning and the moderating role of perceived social support.

Methods

We conducted two studies in China in 2022 and 2023. Study 1 was a longitudinal cross-lagged study that examined the relationship between future self-continuity and depression among 173 participants (49.13% females, Mage = 19.39, SD = 1.63). Study 2 was a cross-sectional study that explored the mediating role of the presence of meaning and the moderating role of perceived social support among 426 participants (48.59% females, Mage = 19.30, SD = 1.60).

Results

Study 1 showed that future self-continuity (T1) could significantly predict depression (T2), but depression (T1) could not predict future self-continuity (T2). Study 2 showed that after controlling for gender, the presence of meaning mediated the relationship between future self-continuity and depression, whereas perceived social support moderated the first half of the mediated model's pathway and the direct pathway.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that enhancing the future self-continuity of college students and increasing the level of presence of meaning are effective measures for alleviating depression. Meanwhile, educators and families are called upon to provide more social support to college students.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data will be made available on request.

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