Abstract: Objective To explore the mediating role of social support between coping styles and negative emotional symptoms among nursing students. Methods A total of 821 nursing students in two comprehensive universities in Wuhan were selected as the research objects by the stratified convenience method. Depression anxiety and stress scale-21 item scale（DASS-21）,social support rating scale（SSRS） and simplified coping style questionnaire（SCSQ） were used for the survey,and SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 24.0 were used for data analysis. Results The total score M（P₂₅,P₇₅） of DASS-21 for nursing students was 8.50（4.5,14.0）points,and the total scores for positive and negative coping styles were （22.5±8.39） and （9.55±5.75）points,respectively. The level of social support was （43.14±7.87）points. 120 nursing students experienced symptoms of depression,accounting for 14.7% of the total number. The social support score of non-only child was higher than that of only child,and the difference was statistically significant（P<0.05）. Social support was negatively correlated with negative emotional symptoms（r=-0.241--0.156,all P<0.01）,positive coping style was negatively correlated with negative emotional symptoms（r=-0.178--0.123,all P<0.01）. Negative coping style was positively correlated with depression dimension（r=-0.076-0.80,all P<0.05）. Social support partially mediated the relationship between coping style and negative emotional symptoms,accounting for 44.97% of the total effect. Conclusions Nursing students who are not only children have a higher level of social support compared to only children,and boys are more likely to adopt negative coping strategies than girls. Coping style can directly or indirectly affect negative emotional symptoms of nursing college students through social support.

Key words: College students, Nursing, Negative emotion, Coping style, Social support