Moderating Effect of Gender and Engineering Identity on the Association between Interpersonal Relationships and Mental Health of Female Engineering Students

Influenced by factors such as gendered masculine culture within the engineering fields, female engineering students are facing increasing mental health issues. However, the effect of gender or engineering identity on the mental health distress of female engineering students was not well explored till now. This study adds to the current body of knowledge of mental health distress in female engineering students by proposing and verifying a moderating model based on social identity theory (SIT). The data were collected in June 2022 using a cross-sectional survey questionnaire distributed at five universities in eastern China (N = 376). A stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to understand the relation between the tension of interpersonal relationships, the mental health distress female engineering students suffer from, and their gender or engineering identity. In our sample, 13.03%, 15.96%, and 14.36% of the female engineering students self-reported moderate to extremely severe stress, anxiety, and depression, respectively. Meanwhile, our results provide empirical evidence for the significantly positive relationship between the female engineering students’ tension of interpersonal relationships and their mental health distress, including stress, anxiety, and depression. Moreover, we found that gender identity can enhance the positive relationships mentioned above, while engineering identity could weaken these relationships. These findings provide empirical evidence for the role of social identity theory in dealing with mental health problems among engineering students. Broadly, the results of this work inform that social identity and professional role identity should be considered when designing interventions to prevent mental health crises among college students.