Negative emotions and quality of life among adolescents: A moderated mediation model

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Depression, anxiety and stress are known as negative emotions. Previous studies have shown that negative emotions were associated with quality of life. There are a lot of researches on quality of life. However, previous studies mainly focused on health-related quality of life among patients. This study aims to examine the relationship between negative emotions and quality of life as well as the underlying psychological mechanism among community-based samples. METHOD: We surveyed 6,401 adolescents (age: 9-15 years old). Participants were assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescent, Perceived Social Support Scale and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 Generic Scale for Negative Emotions, Resilience, Social Support and Quality of Life. RESULTS: Results revealed that negative emotions were negatively associated with quality of life, and resilience mediated the relationship between negative emotions and quality of life. Social support moderated all the paths among negative emotions, resilience and quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents’ quality of life was indirectly affected by negative emotions via resilience, and less affected by negative emotions and more affected by resilience with the improvement of social support. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.