Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Perspect Med Educ. 2022 Aug;11(4):207-212. doi: 10.1007/s40037-022-00713-z. Epub 2022 May 19.
Several studies report that medical students are at high risk of depression. Despite the variability in students' vulnerability to depression, the role of individual differences in depression risk among medical students has hardly been investigated. Studies outside of medical student populations have shown that individual differences in attachment style and emotion regulation participate in vulnerability to depression.
This study investigates to what extent medical students' depressive symptoms are related to differences in students' insecure attachment styles and their perception of reduced access to emotion regulation strategies.
In a cross-sectional quantitative study, undergraduate medical students at the beginning of their second academic year completed online questionnaires measuring their attachment style, difficulties in emotion regulation, and depressive symptoms.
Out of the 390 medical students invited, 267 participated in the survey. Higher secure attachment was associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Medical students' insecure attachment style and emotion dysregulation were significantly related to depressive symptoms. Difficulties in employing strategies to disengage from one's own negative affect partly mediated the effects of two dimensions of insecure anxious attachment-need for approval and preoccupation with relationships-on depressive symptoms.
Anxious attachment style and limited access to emotion regulation strategies participate in medical students' depressive symptoms. These findings highlight the need for acknowledging medical students' attachment style and students' perceived access to emotion regulation strategies for the early identification of and intervention programs for the risk of depression.
多项研究报告称，医学生患抑郁症的风险较高。尽管学生对抑郁症的易感性存在差异，但在医学生中，个体差异在抑郁症风险中的作用几乎没有得到研究。在医学生群体之外的研究表明，依恋风格和情绪调节的个体差异参与了对抑郁症的易感性。
本研究旨在探讨医学生的抑郁症状与学生不安全依恋风格的差异以及对情绪调节策略的感知减少程度有何关系。
在一项横断面定量研究中，即将进入第二年学业的本科医学生在线完成了测量他们的依恋风格、情绪调节困难和抑郁症状的问卷。
在邀请的 390 名医学生中，有 267 名参与了调查。较高的安全依恋与较少的抑郁症状相关。医学生的不安全依恋风格和情绪失调与抑郁症状显著相关。从自身负面情绪中解脱出来的策略的运用困难部分解释了两个不安全感依恋维度（对认可的需求和对关系的关注）与抑郁症状之间的关系。
焦虑依恋风格和获取情绪调节策略的有限途径参与了医学生的抑郁症状。这些发现强调了需要承认医学生的依恋风格和学生对情绪调节策略的感知，以便早期识别和干预抑郁症风险。
