Background: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior among college students is a focus of attention in current society. In the information era, the Internet serves as a public health concern and as an effective pathway for prevention. In order to reduce NSSI behavior, we explore its influence factors, especially the relations between neuroticism, emotion regulation (ER), depression, and NSSI behavior. Methods: A total of 450 college students were surveyed with the Big Five Inventory-2, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Self-Rating Depression Scale, and Adolescent Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Assessment Questionnaire. Results: Regression analysis showed that neuroticism significantly negatively predicted emotion regulation, while it positively predicted depression and NSSI. Multiple mediation modeling demonstrated that neuroticism and emotion regulation had no significant direct effects on NSSI. However, neuroticism could indirectly affect NSSI through four pathways of multiple mediating effects, including depression, cognitive reappraisal-depression, expressive suppression-depression, and cognitive reappraisal-expressive suppression-depression. Conclusions: Neuroticism positively predicts depression and NSSI behavior, and affects NSSI through the mediating effect of ER and depression. Therefore, amelioration of neuroticism from the perspectives of emotion regulation and depression is recommended, so as to reduce NSSI behavior among college students with highly neurotic personalities.

Background: Existing research has demonstrated that problematic smartphone use (PSU) may reflect a composition of heterogeneous symptoms, with individual PSU symptoms uniquely related to predisposing variables. The Big Five personality traits represent one of the most frequently examined predisposing variables in relation to PSU. However, no studies to date have examined the trait-to-symptom association between the Big Five personality traits and PSU. Using a network analysis approach, we aimed to understand: 1) specific pathways linking each of the Big Five personality traits to PSU symptoms and 2) the bridging effects of each Big Five personality trait on the PSU symptom cluster.Methods: A regularised graphical Gaussian model was estimated among 1,849 Chinese university students. PSU symptoms were assessed with items from the Problematic Smartphone Use Scale. Facets of the Big Five personality traits were assessed with the subscales of the Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory-15. An empirical index (i.e., bridge expected influence) was used to quantify bridge nodes.Results: Results revealed specific and distinct pathways between the Big Five personality traits and PSU symptoms (e.g., Neuroticism-Escapism/Avoidance, Conscientiousness-Preoccupation and Extraversion-Escapism/Avoidance). Further, Neuroticism showed the highest positive bridge centrality among the Big Five personality traits, while Conscientiousness had the highest negative bridge centrality.Discussion and conclusions: The current study provided direct empirical evidence concerning specific pathways between the Big Five personality traits and PSU symptoms and highlighted the influential role of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness as potential targets for early detection and treatment of PSU.

Background: There are 68.77 million left-behind children in China, who are at a great risk of depression associated with negative life events. Our study aims to investigate the most central symptoms of depression in left-behind children and the relationship between depressive symptoms and negative life events using network analysis. Method: A cross-sectional data set (N = 7255) was used, which included children and adolescents aged 7 to 17. Network analysis was used to evaluate: 1) the most central symptoms among the items included in Child Depression Inventory (CDI) of the left-behind children; 2) bridge symptoms between depressive disorder and Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Check List (ASLEC) of the left-behind children; 3) differences in networks of depressive disorders between left-behind and non-left-behind children, and 4) differences in the network of depression and negative life events between left-behind and non-left-behind children. The stability and centrality indices of the network were also evaluated in the study. Results: The most central symptoms in the CDI among the left-behind children included self-hatred, crying, fatigue, and sadness. The items with the highest bridge strength centrality in the CDI-ASLEC network included academic stress, discrimination, and school performance decrement. Higher bridge strength values indicate a greater risk of contagion to other communities. The connections in the CDI-ASLEC network are denser in the left-behind children than in non-left-behind children. Limitations: The study which was conducted based on cross-sectional data shows that network analysis can only make undirected estimation, but not causal inferences. Conclusions: We identified the core symptoms of depression and the bridge symptoms between negative life events and depression in the left-behind children. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to self-hatred, sadness, and fatigue in the treatment of depression in left-behind children. Intervention for academic stress and discrimination of the left-behind children may help to reduce the contagion of negative life events to depression symptoms.

Background: Returning to social life after the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown may increase risk of social anxiety, which is highly co-morbid with depression. However, few studies have reported the association between them.Aims: To explore the complex relationship between social anxiety and depression symptoms in left-behind children after the lifting of the COVID-19 lockdown.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted 6 months after the lockdown removal. A total of 3,107 left-behind children completed the survey with a mean age of 13.33 and a response rate of 87.77%. Depression and social anxiety severity were assessed by the DSM-5 Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents and the DSM-5 Social Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire, respectively. The symptom-level association between the two disorders was examined using network analysis.Results: After the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown, the prevalence of depression and social anxiety in left-behind children was 19.57% and 12.36%, respectively, with a co-morbidity rate of 8.98%. Network analysis showed that “Social tension” and “Social avoidance” had the greatest expected influence; “Humiliation” and “Motor” were bridge symptom nodes in the network. The directed acyclic graph indicated that “Social fright” was at the upstream of all symptoms.Conclusion: Attention should be paid to social anxiety symptoms in left-behind children after the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown. Prevention and intervention measures should be taken promptly to reduce the comorbidity of social anxiety and depression symptoms in the left-behind children after the lifting of lockdown.

Background: Mental health issues are often associated with poor self-control. Therefore, effective interventions against mental health problems should include self-control training. However, it is unclear whether the effect of self-control varies across different types of mental health problems.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the convenience sampling method at five universities in Chongqing, China, where 1,409 students reported their demographic information, level of self-control, and symptoms of irritability, depression, and anxiety. Descriptive statistical methods and a network analysis approach were employed to explore the relationship between self-control and symptoms of irritability, depression, and anxiety among 1,409 students. The bridging links between self-control and the three mental health problems were analyzed.Results: The findings revealed a negative correlation between self-control and symptoms of irritability, depression, and anxiety among university students. Impulse control was found to be the bridge between self-control and irritability or anxiety symptoms, while resistance to temptation was the bridge between self-control and depressive symptoms.Conclusion: These results demonstrate the different relationship between self-control with irritability, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. The findings of this study may shed light on future mental health interventions for university students during potential public health emergencies, such as prior knowledge of the main types of psychological problems among university students, which may allow for the development of precise self-control intervention strategies, such as targeting impulsivity or resistance to temptation.

Background: Abuse experiences in adolescents are associated with the risk of depression and suicide. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop prevention and intervention measures for clinicians, policymakers, and researchers.Methods: Network analysis method was used to analyze the cross-sectional data of Chinese adolescents in this study. The Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A) was used for assessing depression, in which item 9 of the PHQ-A was used to assess suicide ideation, and International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) Child Abuse Screening Tool-Children’s Home Version (ICAST-CH) was used for assessing abuse.Results: The prevalence of suicidal ideation among Chinese adolescents was 21.46% (95% CI, 20.79–22.16%). The prevalence of moderate or severe depression was 16.76%, and the prevalence of violence exposure, psychological victimization, neglect, and physical victimization was 33.5%, 59.5%, 28.37%, and 31.51% in the past years, respectively. Network analysis results showed that the most central nodes in the network of abuse and depression were “unimportant,” “not cared,” and “pushed.” The bridge nodes were “suicidal ideation” and “unimportant.” The nodes “sadness,” “failure,” and “unimportant” explained the largest proportion of the variance of suicidal ideation in our network. Differences were found in the structure of both abuse and depression networks between adolescents with or without suicidal ideation.Limitations: The self-reporting–based cross-sectional surveys and community sample groups limit the inference of causality and the generalization of the results.Conclusion: This study shows that “unimportant” is the central and bridge nodes in the abuse and depression networks and also explains a part of variance of suicidal ideation. The effect of “unimportant” should be considered in the prevention and intervention of depression and suicide in adolescents with abuse experience. Future study is needed to confirm its role in clinical intervention.