Social Support, Rumination , and Depression Among College Students: Testing a Moderated Mediation Model with Gender as a Moderator

Objective To investigate how rumination influences the relationship between depression among college students and social support, and to test the moderating effect of gender differences on this basis. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted using random cluster sampling method to select college students from several colleges and universities in Jiangxi and Zhejiang regions, and SPSS 26.0 was used for regression analysis and PROCESS plug-in for the construction of a moderated mediation model. Results Rumination partially mediated the association between social support and depression (indirect impact β=0.68, P<0.01); social support adversely predicted depression in college students (β=-0.40, P<0.001); and gender moderated the direct pathway of social support on college students' depression.Compared to male college students, female students were more likely to experience depression if they had lower amounts of social support. Conclusion Social support influenced college students' depression through the mediation of rumination and the moderation of gender.