Association Between Self-Efficacy and Mental Health: Perceived Social Support as a Mediator

Abstract

Highlights What are the main findings? Self-efficacy was positively associated with mental health among Chinese university students. Perceived social support partially mediated the association between self-efficacy and mental health. What are the implications of the main findings? Student mental health programs should strengthen both personal confidence and perceived social support. Universities should promote supportive peer, family, and institutional environments to improve students’ well-being. Abstract Background: Mental health is important in higher education because university students often face academic stress and social adjustment challenges. Objective: We examined the direct and indirect associations among self-efficacy, perceived social support, and mental health among students at H university in central China. Methods: A stratified convenience sample of 581 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students completed online or face-to-face self-report questionnaires. Shortened measures were used to reduce respondent burden. Self-efficacy was assessed using six items from the Self-Efficacy Scale, perceived social support using three items from the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and mental health using six items from the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. The measures showed acceptable reliability and validity overall (α = 0.848–0.876; CR = 0.886–0.924; AVE = 0.564–0.801; HTMT < 0.85). SPSS 26 and SmartPLS v4.0 were used to examine the proposed associations with 5000 bootstrap resamples. Results: Self-efficacy had a significant positive association with mental health (β = 0.293, p < 0.001) and perceived social support (β = 0.721, p < 0.001). Perceived social support had a significant positive association with mental health (β = 0.145, p = 0.025). The indirect association between self-efficacy and mental health through perceived social support was significant (β = 0.105, p = 0.026). The model explained 16.8% of the variance in mental health and 52.0% of the variance in perceived social support. Conclusions: In this single-university sample, self-efficacy and perceived social support were positively associated with mental health. The cross-sectional self-report design and convenience sampling prevent causal conclusions and limit generalizability. The findings should also be interpreted cautiously because the shortened measures were not independently validated.