Mediating effects of positive mental characters on the relationship between personality and depression in recruits / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the relationship between personality and depression,especially to investigate mediating effect of positive mental characters.Methods A sample of 1 933 male recruits was assessed with eysenck personality questionnaire (EPQ),positive mental characters scale for recruits (PMCS-R) and self-rating depression scale (SDS).Results The scores of introversion-extroversion,psychoticism,neuroticism,positive mental characters and depression were 55.26±10.59,42.85±7.25,42.35± 11.67,3.80±0.64,0.45±0.11,respectively.There were correlations among personality,positive mental characters and depression in recruits (P＜0.05).Regression analysis indicated that introversion-extroversion,psychoticism and neuroticism predicted depression directly,and it could explain 42.6％ of the total variance (F=476.28,P＜0.05).Hierarchy regression analysis showed that positive mental characters mediate the relationship between personality (introversion-extroversion,psychoticism,neuroticism) and depression (the mediation effect was 0.22,0.19 and 0.11 respectively,P＜ 0.05).Conclusion Recruits' personality affects depression not only directly,but also indirectly through positive mental characters.