Associations among impulsivity, aggression, and subthreshold depression in Chinese university students

The purpose in this research was to identify associations among subthreshold depression and the personality factors of impulsivity and aggression. A multistage, stratified sampling procedure was used to select participants (N = 5,245). A Chinese version (Wang, Wang, & Mahong, 1999) of the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, & Mendelson, 1961) was used to determine depressive symptoms; participants who scored 5 or higher were assigned to the subthreshold depression group and were invited to be tested on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995) and on the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992). Results showed that moderate depression was prevalent among Chinese university students; in particular, students with higher scores for impulsivity, physical aggression, and verbal aggression were susceptible to depression. Verbal aggression correlated with depressive scores, but this relationship was strong only among female participants (r = .985, p < .05).