Open Access

ARTICLE

Community Violence Exposure, Experiential Avoidance and Depression in Chinese Adolescents

Tao Li¹, Che Tong Nah², Fei Feng^3,*

1 School of Education, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, 430074, China
2 Sekolah Menengah Chong Hwa Kuantan, Johor, Malaysia
3 Department of General Education, Wuhan Technology and Business University, Wuhan, 430065, China

* Corresponding Author: Fei Feng. Email:

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2018, 20(2), 67-74. https://doi.org/10.32604/IJMHP.2018.010839

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the link between community violence exposure, experiential avoidance and depression among Chinese adolescents. A total of 468 middle school students from China completed the Survey of Children’s Exposure to Community Violence, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Second Edition (AAQ-II) and Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). The results suggested that the depression was positively correlated with the level of community violence exposure and experiential avoidance, and community violence exposure was positively correlated with experiential avoidance. Mediation analysis revealed that experiential avoidance partially mediated the association between exposure to community violence and depression. These results suggest that educators and parents can help adolescents prevent or reduce the happening of depression by reducing their risk of exposure to community violence and decreasing experiential avoidance.

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Keywords

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