The Relationships Among Perfectionism, Rumination And Depression Of College Students

Rumination consists of repetitively thinking about the causes, consequences, and symptoms of one's negative affect, and it is the susceptible factor of depression generated and the duration of depression. Given that the research of rumination is insufficient in mainland China, studies the rumination in depth has both theoretical and practical value. The purposes of the present studies were to explore systematically the relationships among perfectionism, rumination and depression of college students based on the rumination response styles theory which is put forward by Treynor, Gonzalez and Nolen-Hoeksema(2003). Using a sample of 580 college students from 9 universities, the validities and reliabilities of FMPS Chinese version, RRS Chinese version, CES-D were confirmed in pilot study. Preliminary analysis on the relationships of perfectionism, rumination and depression of college students were performed. In the formal study, using a sample of 1100 college students from 18 universities to analyze RRS Chinese version by item response theory and generalizability theory, and focus on confirmation and systematic analysis on the relationships of variables proposed by the pilot study. The primary results are as follows:(1) Rumination is a two-factor mental structure, including reflection and brooding.(2) The reliability, validity and item parameter of RRS Chinese version all reached the standard of psychometrics.(3) The differences in gender of perfectionism and rumination of college students are not statistically significant, but the gender difference of depression is statistically significant, boy students scored higher than girl students; The differences in major of perfectionism, rumination and depression" of college students are not statistically significant; The urban and rural differences of perfectionism and rumination of college students are not statistically significant, but the urban and rural difference of depression is statistically significant; college students from rural areas scored higher than ones from urban areas; The difference in grade of perfectionism is not statistically significant, but the differences in grade of rumination and depression are both statistically significant, the freshmen and seniors had better scores than the sophomores and juniors in the test of rumination, the seniors scored higher than the freshmen in the test of depression.(4) A strong, positive correlation is found between adaptive perfectionism and maladaptive perfectionism, the correlation between adaptive perfectionism and rumination is significantly positive as well, while the correlation between adaptive perfectionism and depression is negative and significant; The correlation between maladaptive perfectionism and rumination is significantly positive, as well as the correlation between maladaptive perfectionism and depression; The correlation between rumination and depression is significantly positive.(5) Adaptive perfectionism shows statistically significant negative effects in predicting depression, the predictive effects of maladaptive perfectionism on depression is positive, the rumination shows statistically significant positive effects in predicting depression; Rumination shows statistically significant partial mediating effects on the relationships between maladaptive perfectionism and depression, but rumination doesn't show any statistically significant mediating effect on the relationships between adaptive perfectionism and depression.These findings above suggest that the rumination response styles theory put forward by Treynor, Gonzalez and Nolen-Hoeksema (2003) can be used to describe college students in Mainland China's culture, it may be valid for the study of depression. The RRS Chinese version based on two-factor structure can be used as a measuring tool to study depression. As the partial mediating effects of rumination, maladaptive perfectionism can affect depression, while adaptive perfectionism does not affect depression through the mediating effects of rumination.