Abstract
Medical graduate students are known to be susceptible to depression and anxiety, and coping style has been implicated in these pathogenic processes. However, the fine-grained pathways through which positive and negative coping styles (i.e., PCS and NCS) impact depression and anxiety remain unclear. This study aimed to use network analysis to investigate the associations among PCS/NCS, the individual symptoms of depression and anxiety, and their comorbidity among medical graduate students. Three regularized partial correlation networks were estimated based on cross-sectional data from 1582 medical graduate students, including PCS/NCS-depression, PCS/NCS-anxiety, and PCS/NCS-comorbidity networks. Bridge expected influence (BEI) values were calculated for each node within the three networks. The results showed the prevalence rates of mild or more severe depression and anxiety symptoms were 24.21% and 19.91%, respectively, in our sample. PCS and NCS functioned differently in relation to individual symptoms of depression and anxiety. Consistently, PCS had the highest negative BEI, while NCS had the highest positive BEI in the PCS/NCS-depression, PCS/NCS-anxiety, and PCS/NCS-comorbidity networks. PCS had more associations with depression and anxiety symptoms than did NCS. These findings shed light on the distinct pathways through which PCS and NCS may influence depression and anxiety. PCS and NCS were identified as important bridge nodes and transdiagnostic factors within separate depression and anxiety disorders and the comorbidity form, serving as protective and detrimental factors, respectively. Furthermore, PCS was more important than NCS in connecting the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.
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The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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The authors thank all the individuals who participated in the study and MogoEdit (https://www.mogoedit.com) for professional English language polishing.
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The study was supported by the “Quick Response” Research Project of Air Force Medical University (2022KXKT014).
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Zhihua Guo: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - original draft. Yajuan Zhang: Methodology, Writing - original draft. Peiyun Pi: Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Xia Zhu: Investigation, Formal analysis, Visualization. Yi Cui: Formal analysis, Visualization. Danmin Miao: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing - Review & Editing. Hongliang Lu: Funding acquisition, Conceptualization, Investigation, Supervision, Writing - Review & Editing.
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Guo, Z., Zhang, Y., Pi, P. et al. Relations among coping style, and depression and anxiety symptoms in medical graduate students: a transdiagnostic network analysis. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05912-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05912-x