Relative deprivation and psychopathology of Chinese college students

Previous researchers have studied the relationship between mental disorder and major demographic variables, but the study on the relationship between relative poverty or relative deprivation, a subjectively perceived status in comparison with people around, and psychopathology is rare. Data for this study were obtained from a survey research conducted on a university campus in Beijing China, between 2007 and 2011, with a total of 5925 college students who participated in the surveys over the past five years. According to the Strain Theory of suicide we hypothesized that the stronger the relative deprivation, the higher the level of depression for the students and the higher the degree of suicidal ideation the students would experience. Findings indicated that relative deprivation is significantly correlated with suicidal ideation, positively related with depression and negatively related to social support. It is proposed that reduction of psychological strains might be an effective procedure to reduce college students' psychopathology and increase their positive psychological feelings such as self-perceived social support.