Parental attachment and depression in vocational college students: a moderated mediation model of resilience and subjective well-being

Based on theoretical and empirical research on subjective well-being and resilience, the present study constructs a moderated mediation model to explore their role in parental attachment and depression among vocational college students. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 1055 vocational college students in Beijing, China. Results indicated that insecure parental attachment significantly positively predicts depression and negatively predicts subjective well-being. Moreover, subjective well-being acts as a mediator between parental attachment and depression. More importantly, resilience can moderate not only the direct path of parental attachment to depression, but also the indirect path by the first half of the subjective well-being mediator path. The present findings provide novel insights into the understanding of depression through attachment theory and positive psychology, suggesting that interventions targeting parental attachment and resilience hold promise for reducing depression in vocational college students.