BACKGROUND: In the medical field, nursing students represent the future of the nursing profession.Their resilience and negative emotions are crucial to their personal growth and future job performance. During academic learning and clinical practice, nursing students encounter multiple challenges and stresses, which may potential influence on their mental health. Consequently, deeply investigating the mediating effect of coping styles employed by nursing students between resilience and negative emotions offers important theoretical and practical implications for mental health education and guidance. OBJECTIVES: The research aims to investigate the current situation of negative emotions, resilience and coping styles among nursing students, as well as analyze the related factors influenced negative emotions, explore the relationships between negative emotions, resilience and coping styles, while further exploring how coping styles work between resilience and negative emotions. METHODS: The research conducted a cross-sectional design to survey 2,975 nursing students from two different medical colleges in Hubei Province. Data were collected using the general information questionnaire, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ). The questionnaire data were analyzed using SPSS 26 and AMOS 17.0. RESULTS: There is a correlation among negative emotions, resilience and coping styles.Significantly, coping styles exhibit a dual mediation effect between resilience and negative emotions among nursing students. Specifically, resilience influences negative emotions through an indirect pathway mediated by coping styles, with positive (β=-0.147, p < 0.01) and negative (β=-0.042, p < 0.01) coping styles significantly affecting the negative emotions of nursing students. CONCLUSION: The study reveals how coping styles work between negative emotions and resilience, emphasizing the pivotal role of positive coping styles in enhancing resilience and maintaining the mental health of nursing students. Therefore, the government, school and practice unit (hospital) should cultivate positive coping styles and while diminishing negative coping approaches. This endeavor aims to improve and boost their resilience, reduce the appearance and duration of negative emotions, and ultimately maintain their mental health at a better level.