Department of Linguistics, Institute of Foreign Languages, China Medical University, Shenyang, P.R. China.
Department of Psychology, School of Medical Humanities, China Medical University, Shenyang, P.R. China.
PLoS One. 2022 Sep 1;17(9):e0273950. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273950. eCollection 2022.
Medical students are vulnerable to anxiety. Identifying its key influencing factors can potentially benefit both students and their future patients. Trait emotional intelligence (EI) and perceived stress may play important roles in anxiety. The main objective of this study was to examine the associations between trait EI, perceived stress and anxiety among Chinese medical students.
Self-report questionnaires, consisting of the Chinese versions of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form, the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale, the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, and demographic section were distributed to 1500 students at three medical universities in China. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to examine the associations between trait EI, perceived stress and anxiety. Asymptotic and resampling strategies were utilized to examine the mediating effect of perceived stress.
A total number of 1388 medical students became final participants. After adjustment for demographics, while trait EI was strongly and negatively associated with anxiety, accounting for 21.1% of its variance, perceived stress was strongly and positively related to anxiety, explaining an additional 10.0% of the variance. Stress appeared to have a mediating effect on the association between trait EI and anxiety in students with high and moderate levels of stress, but not in low stress group.
Both constructs of trait EI and perceived stress could be of vital importance to understand anxiety in medical students. Evidence-based strategies to enhance trait EI and reduce perceived stress might be undertaken to prevent and treat anxiety in the students.
医学生容易焦虑。识别其关键影响因素可能对学生及其未来的患者都有益。特质情绪智力（EI）和感知压力可能在焦虑中起重要作用。本研究的主要目的是研究中国医学生特质 EI、感知压力与焦虑之间的关系。
采用特质情绪智力量表简表、10 项感知压力量表、7 项广泛性焦虑障碍量表和人口统计学部分的自报告问卷，对中国三所医科大学的 1500 名学生进行了调查。采用分层回归分析来检验特质 EI、感知压力与焦虑之间的关系。采用渐近和重抽样策略来检验感知压力的中介作用。
共有 1388 名医学生成为最终参与者。在调整人口统计学因素后，特质 EI 与焦虑呈强烈负相关，解释了 21.1%的方差，感知压力与焦虑呈强烈正相关，解释了额外的 10.0%的方差。在高压力和中压力水平的学生中，压力似乎对特质 EI 和焦虑之间的关系具有中介作用，但在低压力组中没有。
特质 EI 和感知压力这两个结构对于理解医学生的焦虑都很重要。可以采取基于证据的策略来提高特质 EI 和降低感知压力，以预防和治疗学生的焦虑。
