Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2025; 15(9): 109611
Published online Sep 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i9.109611
College students' depression and body image: Unraveling the Link
Zhao-Jun Cheng, Hu Tao, Hua-Guo Huan, Chun-Mei Wu, Qi Wang, Ming Hao
Zhao-Jun Cheng, Hu Tao, Chun-Mei Wu, Qi Wang, Ming Hao, School of Public Health and Health Management, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi Province, China
Hua-Guo Huan, Jiangxi College of Applied Technology, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi Province, China
Co-first authors: Zhao-Jun Cheng and Hu Tao.
Author contributions: Cheng ZJ and Tao H were responsible for data collection, data analysis, and manuscript writing as the co-first authors of the paper; Huan HG was responsible for study design, and data analysis; Wu CM was responsible for data collection, study design and data analysis; Wang Q was responsible for study design, data collection, and funding acquisition; Hao M was responsible for study design, data collection, data analysis, manuscript writing, and funding acquisition; all of the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Supported by Starting Research Fund from the Gannan Medical University, No. QD202121.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Gannan Medical University. This study was conducted according to the guidelines in the Declaration of Helsinki.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed consent, agreeing to the required measurement and survey completion procedures. All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ming Hao, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Health Management, Gannan Medical University, No. 4 Experimental Building, Rongjiang New Area, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi Province, China. hm48922200@yahoo.co.jp
Received: May 19, 2025
Revised: June 11, 2025
Accepted: July 15, 2025
Published online: September 19, 2025
Processing time: 101 Days and 20.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study investigates the relationship between depression and body dissatisfaction among Chinese college students, revealing that body dissatisfaction is a significant mediator. It identifies a critical cutoff value (body mass index difference ≥ 1.73) for predicting depression, highlighting the importance of promoting physical activity and healthy eating behaviors to reduce depression risk.