The Associations among Psychological Distress, Coping Style, and Health Habits in Japanese Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Nursing students in many countries have been reported to experience high levels of stress and psychological distress. Health habits could potentially mediate the association between coping styles and psychological status. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mediation effect of health habits in the relationship between stress coping styles and psychological distress in Japanese nursing students. Methods: A total of 181 nursing students completed anonymous self-reported questionnaires comprised of the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), the Brief Coping Orientation questionnaire, and an additional questionnaire on health behavior. A mediation analysis using path analysis with bootstrapping was used for data analysis. Results: Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that psychological distress was significantly and positively associated with “Avoidance coping” (β = 0.39, p < 0.001), and was negatively associated with “Active coping” (β = −0.30, p < 0.001), “exercise habit” (β = −0.25, p = 0.001), and “sleeping” (β = −0.24, p = 0.002). In the path model, “Active coping” and “Avoidance coping” had significant or marginally significant associations with “exercise habits” (active: β = 0.19, p = 0.008, avoidance: β = −0.12, p = 0.088), and psychological distress (active: β = −0.25, p < 0.001, avoidance: β = 0.363, p < 0.001). However, these coping style variables did not have a significant association with “sleep”. In general, the size of the correlations was below 0.4. Conclusions: Exercise habits mediated the relationship between coping styles and psychological distress to a greater extent than sleep. The present study suggests the possibility that complex interactions between health habits and coping styles may influence the psychological status of nursing students.

Self-Regulation and Regulatory Teaching as Determinants of Academic Behavioral Confidence and Procrastination in Undergraduate Students

“…In addition, further study could be made of the critical components of student self-regulation and of regulatory teaching, components that account for the important differences between the groups compared in this study. A clear understanding of these practices, habits and competencies would make it possible to develop guidance programs or classroom interventions that offer specific training in personal self-regulation and teaching regulation, and would promote application of these principles in educational contexts of university ( Martín et al, 2003 ; Linnenbrink-Garcia and Pekrun, 2011 ; Lüftenegger et al, 2016 ; Shaw et al, 2017 ; Tada, 2017 ; Lekwa et al, 2018 ; Loderer et al, 2018 ; Mainhard et al, 2018 ; Shannon et al, 2019 ; McGee, 2020 ).…”

Effects of Levels of Self-Regulation and Regulatory Teaching on Strategies for Coping With Academic Stress in Undergraduate Students

“…Prior research on motivational and affective factors of learning in university contexts has also recognized the importance of the different types of coping strategies used by university students. Some examples have addressed the role of religious coping (Francis et al, 2018), the role of health habits as a coping strategy (Tada, 2017), how coping strategies related to well-being (Park and Adler, 2003;Bhullar et al, 2014;Freire et al, 2016), types of coping and their relationship to resilience, academic coping within a religious vs. secular context (González-Torres and Artuch, 2014). The associations between coping strategies, anxiety and engagement-burnout have also been established (de la Fuente et al, 2015a).…”

Predictors of burnout among Belgrade veterinary students: A cross-sectional study

“…Health-related habits such as exercise could play important roles in the mediation between psychological distress and coping styles influencing mental health [37]. Reduced physical activity could be associated with stress among university students [38].…”