The Relationship Between Anxiety, Depressive Symptoms, and Psychological Crisis in College Students: A Longitudinal Network Analysis

A six-month follow-up study with two waves was conducted among 10,170 college students. Longitudinal network analysis was used to examine the core symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as the manifestation of psychological crisis; to explore the network relationships among anxiety, depression, and psychological crisis; and to test the temporal stability of these network relationships. The results are as follows: (1) The core symptoms of anxiety and depression among college students were somatic symptoms and affective disturbance at T1, and cognitive symptoms and affective disturbance at T2; the core node of psychological crisis at both T1 and T2 was social support deficit and self-cognitive distress. (2) Psychomotor disturbance was the strongest predictor of other nodes. (3) The overall network structure from T1 to T2 remained relatively stable. These findings reveal the relationship between anxiety/depressive symptoms and psychological crisis among college students, providing a new perspective for psychological crisis intervention in this population.