ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1572011
This article is part of the Research TopicBridging the Gap: Physical Manifestations and Mental Health in AdolescentsView all 7 articles
Exploring the Co-occurrence of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms among Chinese Vocational High School Adolescents through a Network Approach
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
- 2Department of Psychology, School of Sociology and Psychology, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China
- 3Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, China
- 4Experimental Middle School to Sichuan Institute of Educataion Sciences, Chengdu, China
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Depression and anxiety, prevalent among adolescents, show higher rates in females than males. However, little is known about symptom-level interactions and gender-specific network characteristics in secondary vocational students. This study adopted network analysis, including Gaussian graph models and directed acyclic graphs, to explore symptom-level relationships between depression and anxiety in secondary vocational students, identifying bridge and core symptoms, potential causation, and gender-specific network characteristics. Involving 7471 students in a cross-sectional study, we utilized the Patient Health Questionnaire 8-item (PHQ-8) and Generalized Anxiety Disorders 7-item (GAD-7) for symptom measurement. Key findings include: (1) Bridge symptom was "sad mood(PHQ2)". (2) Core symptoms were "fatigue (PHQ4)," "loss of control (GAD2)," "trouble relaxing (GAD4)," "sad mood (PHQ2)," "irritability (GAD6)," "excessive worry (GAD3)," and "feeling guilty (PHQ6)". (3) Numerous cross-disorder links between anxiety and depressive symptoms, predominantly from anxiety symptoms to depressive symptoms. (4) "Irritability (GAD6)" as the initial symptom in the directed network. (5) Higher prevalence of depression and anxiety, and network global strength in females. This study firstly highlight the complex interplay between depressive and anxiety symptoms in secondary vocational students, with notable gender differences. The insights offer valuable guidance for developing targeted interventions and support strategies for this group.
Keywords: Vocational high school students, Depression, Anxiety, gender differences, Network analysis, bayesian networks
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 16 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 He, Yang, Liang, Zhang, Zhang and Chi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xinli Chi, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
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