Psychosocial Resources Mediate Stress and Dual Continua of Mental Health Outcomes in College Students: A Structural Equation Model

ABSTRACT

Mental health concerns among college students remain a pressing issue, yet most research examines psychopathology in isolation from positive mental health. This study integrated the stress process model (SPM) and the dual‐continua model to test whether belongingness, resilience, and perfectionism‐standards mediate the associations between three stressors (sleep problems, perfectionism‐discrepancy, and loneliness) and both anxio‐depressive symptoms and flourishing. Using structural equation modeling with 4744 students at a northeastern US university, we found that stressors were broadly associated with lower psychosocial resources, though perfectionism‐discrepancy was positively associated with perfectionism‐standards. Mediation pathways diverged across the two continua: Resilience was the primary mediator for anxio‐depressive symptoms, whereas belongingness was the dominant mediator for flourishing. In the structural model, perfectionism‐standards simultaneously predicted higher flourishing and slightly higher anxio‐depressive symptoms, a dual function invisible in single‐continuum frameworks. These findings provide evidence that psychopathology and well‐being are associated with distinct psychosocial mechanisms. Practical implications are discussed.