Neuroticism and depression: a moderated mediation model of secure peer attachment and blindness

Background: Prior studies have shown strong pairwise relationships between neuroticism, peer attachment, and depression but very little was found on the questions of how neuroticism is associated with depression through secure peer attachment, and what role individual difference played in these relations (i.e., the moderating mechanism of being visually impaired or not). Objective: The present study investigated the relationship between neuroticism and depression with secure peer attachment as the mediator and being visually impaired or not as the moderator among visually impaired and sighted adolescents. Methods: The sample consisted of 67 visually impaired adolescents from a special education school, and 160 sighted adolescents from an elementary school and a middle school in Guangzhou, China. All of the adolescents completed a battery of questionnaires that measured secure peer attachment, neuroticism, and depression. Results: The results suggested that neuroticism and depression were negatively associated with secure peer attachment. Moreover, it was found that secure peer attachment partially mediated the relationship between neuroticism and depression and that this link was stronger in visually impaired adolescents than in sighted adolescents. Conclusions: The findings highlighted the importance of secure peer attachment for visually impaired adolescents, and results were interpreted in terms of implications for future studies.