Revisiting the longitudinal relationships among depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, and perceived social support: evidence from a random intercept cross-lagged panel model.
4 affiliations
- 1School of Physical Education, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China.
- 2School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, 199 South Chang'an Road, 710061 Xi'an, China.
- 3Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, 710061 Xi'an, China.
- 4School of Management, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, China.
Abstract
The bidirectional relationship between depressive symptoms and perceived social support has been widely reported, and emotion regulation is considered an important mediating mechanism between the two. However, prior studies have not rigorously distinguished stable between-person differences from within-person dynamic changes. The present study applied a Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) to examine the bidirectional relationship between depressive symptoms and perceived social support at the within-person level, as well as the mediating roles of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. A total of 1,390 Chinese college students contributed data to a three-wave study with three-month intervals. RI-CLPM was used to separate between-person and within-person effects. After controlling for between-person differences, one indirect pathway was significant at the within-person level: elevated depressive symptoms at T1 predicted decreased cognitive reappraisal at T2, which in turn predicted reduced perceived social support at T3. Cognitive reappraisal at T2 also negatively predicted depressive symptoms at T3. The direct bidirectional paths between depressive symptoms and perceived social support, as well as all indirect paths through expressive suppression, were not significant. Cognitive reappraisal may play a role in the erosion of perceived social support associated with depressive symptoms. These findings support further testing of whether reappraisal training can help preserve perceived social support among individuals with elevated depressive symptoms.
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BibTeX
@article{che2026revisiting,
title = {{Revisiting the longitudinal relationships among depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, and perceived social support: evidence from a random intercept cross-lagged panel model.}},
author = {Xiang Che and Xuanyu Yao and Miao Hou and Yongtai Huang and Xianglei Wu and Weichao Wang and Qi Hui and Jijun Lan},
journal = {International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHP},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1016/j.ijchp.2026.100733},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42997668},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Revisiting the longitudinal relationships among depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, and perceived social support: evidence from a random intercept cross-lagged panel model.
AU - Xiang Che
AU - Xuanyu Yao
AU - Miao Hou
AU - Yongtai Huang
AU - Xianglei Wu
AU - Weichao Wang
AU - Qi Hui
AU - Jijun Lan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/01
JO - International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHP
DO - 10.1016/j.ijchp.2026.100733
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42997668
AB - The bidirectional relationship between depressive symptoms and perceived social support has been widely reported, and emotion regulation is considered an important mediating mechanism between the two. However, prior studies have not rigorously distinguished stable between-person differences from within-person dynamic changes. The present study applied a Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) to examine the bidirectional relationship between depressive symptoms and perceived social support at the within-person level, as well as the mediating roles of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. A total of 1,390 Chinese college students contributed data to a three-wave study with three-month intervals. RI-CLPM was used to separate between-person and within-person effects. After controlling for between-person differences, one indirect pathway was significant at the within-person level: elevated depressive symptoms at T1 predicted decreased cognitive reappraisal at T2, which in turn predicted reduced perceived social support at T3. Cognitive reappraisal at T2 also negatively predicted depressive symptoms at T3. The direct bidirectional paths between depressive symptoms and perceived social support, as well as all indirect paths through expressive suppression, were not significant. Cognitive reappraisal may play a role in the erosion of perceived social support associated with depressive symptoms. These findings support further testing of whether reappraisal training can help preserve perceived social support among individuals with elevated depressive symptoms.
SN - 1697-2600
SN - 2174-0852
ER -