Abstract
Background and aims: Mental health problems are considered as important public health issues. This study aimed, firstly, to investigate the epidemiology of mental disorders’ symptoms among the students of Bojnord University and examine the role of demographic characteristics in the prevalence of the given symptoms; and, secondly, to explore and compare the predictive role of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in identifying symptoms of different mental disorders. Methods: A total of 351 students from Bojnord University completing their 2018-2019 academic year were recruited using cluster sampling method and responded to Symptom Checklist-SCL90 and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage, as well as multiple regression analysis. Results: According to the findings from this epidemiological study, 33% of the students suffered from moderate symptoms of mental disorders, while 14% of them suffered from severe symptoms. Demographic characteristics of gender, marital status, and place of origin (i.e., being indigenous/non-indigenous) were not found to exert a significant effect on the prevalence of symptoms of mental disorders. The results of multiple regression analysis also indicated that cognitive emotion regulation strategies were capable of predicting all nine dimensions of mental disorder symptoms. In this regard, the maladaptive strategies were discovered to play a stronger role in predicting mental disorders compared to adaptive strategies. Conclusions: Mental disorders were very common among university students. No significant relationship was detected between the prevalence of mental disorders’ symptoms and gender, marital status, and place of origin. The study findings were also found to support the trans-diagnostic role of the emotion regulation in mental disorders.
Highlights
Mental health problems are considered as important public health issues.[1]
The findings from the present study demonstrated that cognitive emotion regulation strategies played a role in all nine dimensions of the symptoms of mental health problems
The findings from this study revealed that maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies were capable of predicting the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which were in line with the study results of Grisham et al.[26]
Summary
Mental health problems are considered as important public health issues.[1]. Mental disorders cause significant disabilities regarding social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.[2]Numerous studies in the United States and Europe have shown that mental health problems are common among students.[3,4,5,6] studies conducted in some Iranian universities have reported a high prevalence of mental disorders among students.[7,8] Stressful transition from adolescence to early adulthood requiring the acceptance of responsibilities and independence,[9,10] transition from home to university,[10,11] academic pressures,[11,12] and financial worries[11] are among the most important contributory factors responsible for higher prevalence of mental disorders in students compared to the general population. a significant percentage of students have some degrees of mental health problems, many of them do not receive appropriate treatment. This study aimed, firstly, to investigate the epidemiology of mental disorders’ symptoms among the students of Bojnord University and examine the role of demographic characteristics in the prevalence of the given symptoms; and, secondly, to explore and compare the predictive role of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in identifying symptoms of different mental disorders. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that cognitive emotion regulation strategies were capable of predicting all nine dimensions of mental disorder symptoms. In this regard, the maladaptive strategies were discovered to play a stronger role in predicting mental disorders compared to adaptive strategies.
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