Nursing Department, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, 201, Sec. 2, Shih-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
BMC Public Health. 2011 May 19;11:352. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-352.
Mental health problems in young people are an important public health issue. Students leaving their hometown and family at a young age to pursue better educational opportunities overseas are confronted with life adjustment stress, which in turn affects their mental health and academic performance. This study aimed to examine the relationships among stress, coping strategies, and depressive symptoms using the stress coping framework in overseas Chinese university preparatory students in Taiwan.
A cross-sectional study was conducted at an overseas Chinese university preparatory institute in Taiwan. Of enrolled overseas Chinese university preparatory students at 2009, 756 completed a structured questionnaire measuring stress, strategies for coping with it, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.
High levels of stress significantly predicted the adoption of active, problem-focused coping strategies (R(2) = 0.13, p < .01) and passive, emotion-focused coping strategies (R(2) = 0.24, p < .01). Acceptable CFI, SRMR, and RMSEA values from the structural equation modeling analysis demonstrated that the model satisfactorily fits the stress coping framework, after active coping strategies were eliminated from the model. Results from the Sobel test revealed that passive coping strategies mediated the relation between stress and depressive symptoms (z = 8.06, p < .001).
Our study results suggested that stress is associated with coping strategies and depressive symptoms and passive strategies mediate the relation between stress and depressive symptoms in overseas Chinese university preparatory students.
年轻人的心理健康问题是一个重要的公共卫生问题。年轻人离开家乡和家人，到海外追求更好的教育机会，他们面临着生活调整的压力，这反过来又影响了他们的心理健康和学业成绩。本研究旨在使用台湾华侨大学预科生的应激应对框架，检验应激、应对策略和抑郁症状之间的关系。
在台湾的一所华侨大学预科学校进行了一项横断面研究。在 2009 年注册的华侨大学预科学生中，有 756 人完成了一份测量应激、应对策略和流行病学研究中心抑郁量表的结构化问卷。
高水平的应激显著预测了积极的、问题为中心的应对策略（R²=0.13，p<.01）和消极的、情绪为中心的应对策略（R²=0.24，p<.01）的采用。结构方程模型分析中可接受的 CFI、SRMR 和 RMSEA 值表明，在从模型中消除积极应对策略后，该模型很好地符合应激应对框架。Sobel 检验的结果表明，消极应对策略在应激和抑郁症状之间起中介作用（z=8.06，p<.001）。
我们的研究结果表明，应激与应对策略和抑郁症状有关，消极应对策略在应激和抑郁症状之间起中介作用。
