Self-Care Mediates Current Adverse Experiences and Depressive Symptoms Among Emerging Adults

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the associations between current adverse experiences, self-care behaviors, and depressive symptoms among emerging adults who are university students. Guided by the concept of “thriving” (O’Leary & Ickovics, 1995), a strength-based perspective is adopted to examine undergraduates’ adverse experiences (conceptually similar to adverse childhood experiences), self-care behaviors, and depressive symptoms. The study’s main hypothesis is that self-care behaviors have a mediating role between current adverse experiences and depressive symptoms. Study results, based on data gathered via an online survey from 380 university students, indicated that higher levels of current adverse experiences were related to lower levels of physical and psychological self-care behaviors and higher levels of depressive symptoms. Only physical self-care behaviors mediated the association between current adverse experiences and depressive symptoms. This research contributes to the field by considering how physical self-care behaviors may help emerging adults thrive despite their current adverse experiences.