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. 2024 Jun 19;12(1):357.
doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-01853-z.

The relationship between the psychological resilience and post-traumatic growth of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a model of conditioned processes mediated by negative emotions and moderated by deliberate rumination

Yanhua Xu  1 , Yonghui Ni  1 , Jiayan Yang  2 , Jiamin Wu  2 , Yating Lin  2 , Jialu Li  2 , Wei Zeng  3 , Yuqing Zeng  2 , Dongtao Huang  2 , Xingrou Wu  2 , Jinlian Shao  2 , Qian Li  2 , Ziqi Zhu  4
Affiliations

The relationship between the psychological resilience and post-traumatic growth of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a model of conditioned processes mediated by negative emotions and moderated by deliberate rumination

Yanhua Xu et al. BMC Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: The mental health of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic has attracted the attention of researchers. For the present study researchers constructed a mediation model to explore the relationship between psychological resilience and post-traumatic growth, the mediating role of negative emotions and the moderating role of deliberate rumination in students.

Methods: The Psychological Resilience Scale, Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale (DASS-21) and Event Related Rumination Inventory were used in a survey of 881 college students. The data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and the PROCESS plugin (version 3.3).

Results: (1) Psychological resilience is positively related with post-traumatic growth. Deliberate rumination is positively related to psychological resilience, posttraumatic growth, and negative emotions. Psychological resilience, post-traumatic growth and negative emotions are negatively related. (2) Negative emotions mediated the relationship between psychological resilience and post-traumatic growth. (3) Deliberate rumination plays a moderating role in psychological resilience affecting negative emotions. Deliberate rumination plays a moderating role in the extent to which psychological resilience influences PTG through negative emotions.

Conclusions: Psychological resilience affects post-traumatic growth directly and also indirectly through negative emotions. With the increase of mental resilience, the level of negative emotion tended to decrease. When individuals are experiencing negative emotions, high levels of active rumination are more likely to promote post-traumatic growth. This study helps to explore the factors affecting the mental health of college students during the epidemic, thus providing guidance for appropriate mental health interventions.

Keywords: COVID-19; Deliberate rumination; Moderated mediation model; Negative emotions; Post-traumatic growth; Psychological resilience.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Moderated mediation model of the present research
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scree plot
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The relationship between psychological resilience and negative emotion for high and low levels of deliberate rumination
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The relationship between negative emotion and post-traumatic growth for high and low levels of deliberate rumination
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The standardized estimate values of the final model
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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