The Relationship between Campus Bullying and Depression: The Mediating Role of Personality

Abstract

Background: School bullying and depression have a great negative psychological impact on college students, and personality analysis is the key to the detection of psychopathological states. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the mediating effect of personality on depression and school bullying in college students.  

Method: This cross-sectional study investigated the bullying situation in colleges and universities by using the Olweus Scale, the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The participants were 1200 college students. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the data and the mediating effect of exposure, and the mediating effect was tested.   

Results: Spearman correlation analysis showed that bullying experience was associated with introversion (r = 0.702), neuroticism (r = 0.219) and depressive symptoms (r = 0.600), but was negatively correlated with extraversion (r = –0.537). Depressive symptoms were positively correlated with neuroticism (r = 0.279) and introversion (r = 0.611), but negatively correlated with extraversion (r = –0.469). In relationship between bullying and depression, neuroticism showed positively partially mediating effect and mediating effect ratio was 4.39% (β = 0.161, p < 0.05), and introversion had an obvious mediating effect and the ratio was 40% (β = 0.611, p < 0.001). Otherwise, extraversion partially mediated between campus bullying and depression adversely and mediating ratio is 8.75% (β = –0.359, p < 0.05).   

Conclusion: Campus bullying is significantly associated with depression and personality, and personality has a remarkable mediating effect in campus bullying and depression.