Abstract

This study examines the impact of loneliness on depression among college students. It explores the moderating effect of a cognitive emotion regulation strategy, namely putting into perspective, and the moderated moderation effect of the behavioral activation system. A total of 283 college students completed self-report measures assessing loneliness, depression, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and the behavioral activation and inhibition systems. The results indicated that loneliness had a significant impact on depression. In addition, putting into perspective significantly alleviated this relationship. Furthermore, controlling for the behavioral inhibition system, lower levels of the behavioral activation system were significantly associated with a stronger moderating effect of putting into perspective. The implications and limitations of these findings, along with suggestions for future research are discussed.