Aim: To look at how college students’ employment pressure influences their depression and to check what part self-efficacy plays in this relation. Methods: An online questionnaire was given to 365 college students. Structural equation modeling and the Bootstrap method were used to check the mediating effect. Results: Employment pressure can clearly raise the level of depression (β=0.36). Self-efficacy has a certain mediating effect between the two factors (indirect effect=0.056, accounting for 13.4%). Conclusion: Employment pressure can make depression worse by lowering people’s self-efficacy. Raising self-efficacy can reduce the bad mental influence brought by employment pressure.
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