Resilience as a mediator of interpersonal relationships and depressive symptoms amongst 10th to 12th grade students

Background: The aim of this study was to explore the associations among interpersonal relationships, resilience and depressive symptoms, and to examine if resilience is a mediator between interpersonal relationships and depressive symptoms in senior high school students. Methods: Of 463 randomly selected participants from among 3,900 high school students, 450 (97.19%) consented to and completed a structured 4-part questionnaire consisting of demographic items, Inventory of Adolescent Resilience, Taiwan Relationship Inventory for Children and Adolescents, and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children. The associations between interpersonal relations and resilience and their associations with depressive symptoms were analyzed using MPlus 8.0 software for structural equation modeling. Results: Results from structural equation modeling indicate that resilience and interpersonal relationships were negatively associated with students’ depressive symptoms, and resilience partially mediated the associations between interpersonal relationships and depressive symptoms after controlling for demographics. Conclusion: Findings support that resilience and better interpersonal relationships are protective factors against depressive symptoms in adolescents. The positive association between the two protectors implies that interpersonal relationships might increase resilience and then alleviate depression amongst adolescents.