ArticleFrontiers in public health2023
Does depression affect the association between prosocial behavior and anxiety? A cross-sectional study of students in China.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Association Between Prosocial Behavior and Mental Health: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis.Journal of adolescence · 2026Pooled it
- Detecting age differences in prosociality using a newly developed picture-based measure.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Overreactive parenting links maternal depressive symptoms and child prosocial behaviors among mother-child dyads in Western China.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Relationships of gender, duration of living in a foster home, resilience, intimacy of friendship, prosocial behavior, and perceived stigmatization with depression among adolescents in foster homes in Thailand: A correlational study.Belitung nursing journal · 2026Article
- The Development, Validity and Reliability of the Willingness of Prosocial Behavior Scale for Community-Dwelling Older Adults Using Classical Testing Theory.Clinical interventions in aging · 2026Article
- Prosocial Helping Behavior: Conceptual Issues and Neural Mechanisms.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- A network analysis of the heterogeneity and associated risk and protective factors of depression and anxiety among college students.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Facing the pandemic aftermath: exploring depression and mental health service usage among first-year university students in southern Thailand.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Food consumption and mental health in children and adolescents: A systematic review protocol.MethodsX · 2024Article
- Study on Awareness of Suicide and Suicide Prevention Among Community Youth.Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2024Article
- Prosocial behavior associated with trait mindfulness, psychological capital and moral identity among medical students: a moderated mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: A growing number of studies have suggested that adolescents' prosocial behavior can protect against depression and anxiety. It is known that anxiety and depression are often comorbid. However, it remains unclear if when depression is present, prosocial behavior remains protective against anxiety, and if when anxiety is present, prosocial behavior remains protective against depression. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of anxiety and depressive with prosocial behavior. Methods: A large representative sample of middle-school students was recruited for a cross-sectional study and completed standardized instruments (the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders-Child version (SCARED-C), and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)). We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the protective effect of prosocial behavior against anxiety when depression was present. Results: A survey of 3,510 students was conducted, and the final analysis included 3,169 students, comprising 1,616 boys (51.0%) and 1,553 girls (49.0%), with a mean age of 13.09 years (SD = 1.31, range 11-16).The prevalence rates of anxiety and depression in early adolescents were 31.6 and 16.7%, respectively. More than two-thirds of depressed adolescents had comorbid anxiety, while more than one-third of anxious adolescents had comorbid depression. Regression models showed that compared with depressed adolescents, adolescents without depressive symptoms exhibited a significant negative correlation between prosocial behaviors and anxiety and depression ( Conclusion: Anxiety and depression are common in adolescence and are often comorbid disorders. However, the comorbidity is not symmetrical. Specifically, the protective effect of prosocial behavior against anxiety is weaker in depressed adolescents. Findings are discussed in light of related research and theory, and insights for intervention programs and future research are presented.
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