The Relationship Between Family Socioeconomic Status And Depressed Mood In Junior High School Students:The Mediating Role Of Class Identity Fusion

Adolescent depression is a global public health problem,which has caused serious harm to the physical and mental health of adolescents.Teenagers are in an important period of development.They are facing great learning pressure and interpersonal and emotional problems,so they are prone to depressed mood.The current research mainly focuses on the internal and external factors that affect adolescents ’depressed mood,but less attention is paid to what factors may have a covariant relationship with adolescents’ depressed mood.The purpose of this study is to focus on what factors can help adolescents reduce depressed mood and may have a covariant relationship with it.Specifically,this study explores the relationship between junior high school students’ family economic status,class identity fusion and depressed mood,and on this basis,explores the co-variation trend of class identity fusion and depressed mood,and the influence of family economic status on this co-variation.In the first study,a cluster sampling method was used to select students from grade one to grade three from four junior middle schools in Guizhou.A total of 1878 questionnaires were sent out and 1823 valid questionnaires were collected(effective rate 96.82%).The study used self-report to measure family economic status,class identity fusion and depressed mood of junior high school students,and focused on the mediating role of class identity fusion between family economic status and depressed mood of junior high school students.The results show that:(1)there is a significant positive correlation between family economic status and class identity fusion;(2)Family economic status and class.identity fusion were significantly negatively correlated with depressed mood;(3)Class identity fusion plays a significant mediating role between family economic status and depressed mood in junior high school students.The second study is a four-month longitudinal survey.The first measurement was arranged in the transition period of admission adaptation during the first week of the freshman’ s schooling,and the subsequent 2,3,and 4measurements were performed every 1 month.In this study,a total of 2463 freshmen from six junior high schools in Guizhou Province were selected as subjects(mean age 12.59 years,SD=0.40).Based on the collected tracking data,the changes of class identity fusion and depressed mood were analyzed,and the mediating effect of class identity fusion between family economic status and depressed mood trajectory of junior high school students was further tested.The results show that:(1)The class identity fusion of the first-year freshmen shows a trend of phased growth,and it is found that there are obvious individual differences in the initial level and the later growth rate at the beginning of enrollment;(2)Freshmen’ s depressed mood showed a linear downward trend,and there were significant individual differences in the initial level of enrollment and the rate of decline in the later period;(3)There is a covariant relationship between the change trajectory of class identity fusion and the change trajectory of depressed mood;(4)Family economic status can significantly predict the initial level of depressed mood of the first-year junior high school students,and can also significantly predict the initial level of class identity fusion and the speed of change in the first stage;(5)The change trajectory of class identity fusion of freshmen in grade one will play a partial mediating role between their family economic status and the change trajectory of depressed mood.In conclusion,this study verifies that class identity fusion is one of the important factors affecting junior high school students’ depressed mood.It is also found that the higher the family economic status of junior high school students,the higher the degree of class identity fusion,the less depressed mood,and class identity fusion will play a significant mediating role between the family economic status of junior high school students and depressed mood.In addition,the study also found that during the transition period,the faster class identity fusion,the faster the depressed mood of junior high school freshmen can be reduced.This result provides a new idea for junior high school students to adapt to education and mental health intervention,that is,by improving the level of class identity fusion of junior high school students,to reduce the depressed mood of junior high school students,and then maintain their physical and mental health development.