Relationship between negative life events and state-anxiety:Mediating role of rumination and moderating role of self-affirmation / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the effect of rumination and self-affirmation on the relations between negative life events and state-anxiety in college students.Methods:A total of 265 college students were assessed with the Adolescent Self-rating Life Events Checklist (ASLEC),State Anxiety subscale of Sate-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAIA),Rumination Response Scale (RRS) and self-affirmation subscale of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ).The mediating effect was tested by multiple regression and bias-corrected percentile residual Bootstrap methods.The moderating effect was tested by multiple regression and simple slope analysis.Results:The state anxiety scores and self-affirmation scores were higher in students from cities than those from village(Ps ＜0.05).Negative life events negatively predicted state-anxiety directly(β =0.57,P ＜0.001).Rumination partly mediated the relationship between negative life events and state-anxiety,and the ratio of the mediating effect to the total effect was 29.7％.Self-affirmation was the moderator of the relationship between negative life events and state-anxiety(β =0.13,P ＜0.05).Conclusion:It suggests that negative life events could not only have a direct effect on state-anxiety,but also has an indirect effect through rumination.Self-affirmation could moderate the relations between negative life events and state anxiety.