RESUMO
Objective:To investigate the role of perceived social support and self-esteem between the passive social network site use and depression among college students.Methods:Totally 1 393 college students were investigated by social website use scale, perceived social support scale, self-esteem scale and center for epidemiologic studies depression scale. SPSS 20.0 and Amos 21.0 softwares were used for descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, mediating effect test and structural equation model construction.Results:The total scores of passive social network site use, perceived social support, self-esteem and depression were (13.96±3.47), (61.04±12.03), (27.28±4.35) and (31.18±8.74) respectively. The scores of passive social network site use group in perceived social support (60.03±12.25), self-esteem (27.03±4.34) and depression (31.53±9.06) were statistically different with those in the active social network site use group (perceived social support (63.61±11.03), self-esteem (27.91±4.31) and depression (30.31±7.82), t=-5.04, P<0.01, t=-3.39, P=0.001, t=2.35, P=0.019). After controlling gender variables, the use of passive social network sites was positively correlated with depression ( r=0.053, P<0.01), while negatively correlated with perceived social support and self-esteem ( r=-0.157, -0.088, P<0.01). Perceived social support was positively correlated with self-esteem ( r=0.45, P<0.01). Perceived social support and self-esteem played a partial mediating role between passive social network site use and depression. The mediating effect includes two paths: one was the separate mediating effect of social support, and the other was the chain mediating effect of perceived social support and self-esteem, which accounted for 27% and 25% of the total effect respectively. Conclusion:The use of passive social networking sites can indirectly affect depression through the perceived social support or the chain mediating of social support and self-esteem.