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While existing literature acknowledges these factors independently, their integrated effects remain underexplored. This research addresses this gap by proposing psychological resilience as a mediator and egoism as a moderator, offering a novel theoretical framework for understanding student wellbeing dynamics in higher education contexts.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>The study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining expert validation with large-scale student data. Ten specialists evaluated wellbeing determinants via a Fuzzy Delphi questionnaire. Quantitative analysis involved 1,336 students from a Chinese public university, with data collected through validated scales. Structural equation modeling (SEM) tested hypotheses regarding: (1) depressive symptoms' direct effects, (2) resilience's mediating role, and (3) egoism's moderating influence. The robust methodology enabled simultaneous examination of these interrelated factors while controlling for academic and social stressors.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>The findings demonstrate a direct correlation between depressive symptoms and students' well-being, alongside a predominantly positive indirect effect of psychological resilience and egoism on psychological well-being, primarily linked to the advantageous impact of alleviating depressive symptoms among college students. This study's findings demonstrate the detrimental effect of students' depressive symptoms on their well-being in education, implementing psychological resilience and egoism as strategic interruption tools.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>This research provided empirical evidence and thorough statistical analysis demonstrating the simultaneous presence of both positive and negative effects, facilitating the resolution of existing discrepancies in literature. This research introduced a novel instrument for evaluating student well-being, facilitating further investigations inside the university educational context from a fresh research perspective.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2025.1603443","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,19]],"date-time":"2025-08-19T05:20:30Z","timestamp":1755580830000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The impact of the psychodynamic model of depressive symptoms, psychological resilience, and egoism on the well-being among college students: a hybrid three-stage Fuzzy Delphi and structural equation modeling methodology"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Wang","family":"Ting","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Peng","family":"Qian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sui","family":"Xiaohan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"411","DOI":"10.1186\/s12909-023-04387-x","article-title":"The prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms among first-year and fifth-year medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study","volume":"23","author":"Alshehri","year":"2023","journal-title":"BMC Med. 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