Social behavior and anxiety - depression among university students: The mediating role of loneliness and gender differences

Abstract

This study examined the mediating role of loneliness in the relationship between social behavior and symptoms of anxiety and depression among university students, and tested the moderating role of gender in this indirect relationship. Data were collected from 296 students in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with a mean age of 20.5 years (SD = 0.90), and analyzed using Model 7 of the PROCESS macro with 5,000 bootstrap samples. The instruments included a social behavior scale, the UCLA-8 Loneliness Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) for assessing symptoms of anxiety and depression. The findings indicated that loneliness mediated the relationship between social behavior and anxiety - depression and that the strength of this indirect relationship varied by gender. Specifically, the indirect association between social behavior and anxiety - depression through loneliness was statistically significant among female students. However, the index of moderated mediation was not statistically significant, indicating insufficient evidence to conclude that the indirect effect differed significantly between male and female students. These findings suggest that social behaviors are associated with lower levels of loneliness and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression among young adults, and highlight loneliness as an important psychological mechanism underlying this relationship.