BackgroundHigher vocational college students face more life stress, which can easily result in depression and hinder their healthy growth. This study aimed to explore the roles of survival situation and personality temperament in the relationship between life stress and depression.MethodsA self-compiled "College Students' Life Stress and Mental Health Questionnaire" was used to survey 4800 students in a Chinese higher vocational college. The questionnaire consisted of five subscales: life stressors scale, stress response scale, depression scale, personality temperament types scale, and survival situations scale. The sample included 4705 students, of whom 3449 (73.30%) were males and 1256 (26.70%) were females, with 990 urban students (21.04%), 3715 rural students (78.96%). The age of the participants ranged from 17 to 33 years. The data were analyzed using SPSS v26, PROCESS v3.3, and AMOS v23.Results(1) The depression rate of higher vocational students was 18.10% (with a severe depression rate of 1.60%). Life stress could explain 43.80% of depressive episodes (p< 0.01), (2) Among survival situations, the depression degree and rate of students in adversity were the highest (M = 1.56, 24.10%), (3) Among temperament types, the depression degree and rate of melancholic students were the highest (M = 2.13, 36.05%), (4) Survival situation and personality temperament had significant moderating interaction effects on depression caused by life stress (p< 0.01), students in adversity and depressive temperament were more susceptible, (5) Survival situations moderated three paths of the "life stressors-stress response-depression" partial mediation model, and personality temperament types moderated "stress response-depression" path.ConclusionProsperity and sanguine temperament are protective factors of depression caused by life stress in higher vocational students. Dilemma, adversity and melancholic temperament are risk factors of depression caused by life stress in higher vocational students.