Self-aggressive behaviors exacerbate depressive mood among college students with anger-in: a 6-month follow-up study

Depressive mood has a relatively high incidence rate among college students, and has become a prominent issue affecting the mental health and adaptive development of this group. Anger-in is a potential influencing factor for depression, but its longitudinal predictive effect on depressive mood and the underlying mechanism remain unclear. This study aims to explore the predictive effect of anger-in on depressive mood among college students, clarify the mediating mechanism of self-aggression, and provide a scientific basis for the prevention and intervention of depressive mood among college students.

A prospective cohort design was adopted to conduct baseline surveys (T1 in November 2024) and 6-month follow-up surveys (T2 in April 2025) among 781 college students from 2 universities in Chongqing (Army Medical University and Chongqing Second Normal University). Patients’ health questionnaire depression scale-9 item (PHQ-9), Buss-Perry aggression questionnaire-Chinese version (AQ-CV), and the state-trait anger expression inventory 2(STAXI-Ⅱ) were used to measure the levels of depressive mood, self-aggression, and anger-in, respectively. Spearman correlation analysis was performed for data analysis, a cross-lagged model was constructed using Mplus 8.3, and the mediating effect was tested using the Bootstrap procedure.

① Female college students had higher anger-in scores. Those aged ≤22 years, unmarried, and undergraduates showed higher anger-in and self-aggression scores. Female students, those aged >22 years, and graduate students exhibited higher levels of depressive mood. ② In the 6-month follow-up study on depressive mood, self-aggression, and anger-in among college students, the results revealed that the scores of anger-in (Z=4.44, P<0.001) and depressive mood (Z=11.98, P<0.001) were significantly increased, while the scores of self-aggression showed no significant difference. ③ At T1 and T2, there were significant positive correlations among anger-in, self-aggression, and depressive mood (r=0.31 to 0.54, P<0.01). ④ The cross-lagged model showed that T1 anger-in could positively predict T2 depressive mood (β=0.16, P<0.001). ⑤ The longitudinal mediation model demonstrated that self-aggression played a partial mediating role in the prediction of T2 depressive mood by T1 anger-in (β=0.13, 95%CI: 0.09 to 0.18, P<0.001), and the total indirect effect of the chain mediation accounted for 48.55% of the total effect, while the direct predictive effect of T1 anger-in accounted for 51.45% of the total effect.

Anger-in can positively predict depressive mood among college students, with self-aggression playing a mediating role in this process. This suggests that in mental health work for college students, attention should be paid to the tendency of anger-in, and the prevention and alleviation of depressive mood can be achieved through guiding rational emotional expression and reducing self-aggressive behaviors.