The relationships among coping styles, personality traits and mental health of Chinese medical students

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among coping styles, personality traits, and mental health in medical students at Xi’an Jiaotong University School of Medicine. 276 participants were administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975; Chinese version, Gong, 1986), Coping Style Questionnaire (as adapted by Xiao, 1996), and the Symptoms Checklist-90 (Derogatis, 1975; Chinese version, Chen, 1999). The students displayed a wide range of coping skills including problem solving, help seeking, and fantasizing. Male students’ coping styles were slightly different from those of female students and some relationships were found among coping style, personality, and level of emotional health. Coping styles and the EPQ were closely correlated with psychological health. The analysis of multiple regression showed neuroticism, paranoid ideation, and rationalization, father’s education level, fantasizing and academic stress were influencing factors in the psychological/emotional health of the respondents.