1. Introduction
Students’ mental health problems include depression, anxiety, panic disorders, phobias and obsessive compulsive thoughts [
1,
2]. During college years, students are confronted with academic, social and personal needs. These needs may shift along with changes in age, experience, socioeconomic status, gender, race or ethnicity and social trends. Researchers consent on the need for an accurate, regular assessment of college student needs [
3].
Mental disorders are as prevalent among college students as same-aged nonstudents [
4] and these disorders appear to be increasing in number and severity [
5,
6]. Mental health among college students presents not only a growing concern but also an opportunity, because of the large number of people who could be reached during an important period of life. More than 65% of American high school graduates continue with higher education [
7]. Mental disorders account for nearly one-half of the disease burden for young adults in the United States [
8] and most lifetime mental disorders have first onset by the age of 24 years [
9]. The college years represent a developmentally challenging transition to adulthood, and untreated mental illness may have significant implications on academic success [
10], productivity [
11], substance use [
12,
13] and social relationships [
14].
Within the college population, certain subgroups have a significantly larger prevalence of mental health problems, which is consistent with studies of the general population. Male undergraduates are at a higher risk for suicide, but female students are more likely to screen positive for major depression and anxiety disorders [
15]. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are at a higher risk for depressive and anxiety symptoms [
16]. Poor mental health is also more common among students with relationship stressors [
17], low social support [
18], or victimization by sexual violence [
19]. Considering the above, the aims of the present study were to examine the relationship among depression, anxiety, personality and psychosomatic symptoms.
3. Results
3.1. Demographic Characteristics
Demographic characteristics for the students who participated in this study are summarized in
Table 1. The majority of the students are females (63.38%) and their ages vary from 18 to 37 years old. Almost half of the students are studying at the School of Science (48.98%), and 15.34% are studying at the School of Health Science, 14.40% at the School of Philosophy and 13.46% at the School of Law and Economics and Political Science. In the analysis that follows, the School of Theology is merged with the other departments, since the corresponding percentage is low.
Table 1.
Demographic characteristics of the sample.
Table 1.
Demographic characteristics of the sample.
Category | Frequency | Percent | Job | Frequency | Percent |
---|
Female | 405 | 63.38 | No | 529 | 82.79 |
Male | 234 | 36.62 | Yes | 110 | 17.21 |
Total | 639 | | Total | 639 | |
School | | | Residence | | |
Theology | 7 | 1.10 | Family | 277 | 43.42 |
Law, Economics and Political Science | 86 | 13.46 | Brothers/Sisters | 72 | 11.29 |
Health | 98 | 15.34 | Flatmates | 27 | 4.23 |
Philosophy | 92 | 14.40 | Students’ residence | 157 | 24.61 |
Science | 313 | 48.98 | Alone | 95 | 14.89 |
Other departments | 43 | 6.73 | Other | 10 | 1.57 |
Total | 639 | | Total | 638 | |
Income | | | Origin | | |
No | 321 | 50.39 | Attica | 308 | 48.28 |
0–3000 | 126 | 19.78 | Urban areas | 205 | 32.13 |
3001–8200 | 96 | 15.07 | Hail from other parts of Greece | 70 | 10.97 |
8201–12,600 | 42 | 6.59 | Rural areas | 26 | 4.08 |
>12,601 | 52 | 8.16 | Abroad | 29 | 4.55 |
Total | 637 | | Total | 638 | |
Semester | | | BMI | | |
Undergraduate | 460 | 72.33 | Underweight | 47 | 7.83 |
About to graduate | 164 | 25.79 | Normal | 456 | 76.00 |
Postgraduate | 12 | 1.89 | Overweight | 86 | 14.33 |
Total | 636 | Obese | 11 | 1.83 | |
Family status | | | Total | 600 | |
Single | 594 | 93.10 | Traumatic death | | |
Married | 39 | 6.11 | Nothing | 357 | 84.20 |
Cohabitation | 2 | 0.31 | Committed suicide | 13 | 3.07 |
Separated | 2 | 0.31 | Attempted suicide | 22 | 5.19 |
Divorced | 1 | 0.16 | Violent dealth | 32 | 7.55 |
Total | 638 | | Total | 424 | |
Health problem | | | Family history | | |
No | 578 | 90.45 | No | 553 | 86.68 |
Yes | 61 | 9.55 | Yes | 85 | 13.32 |
Total | 639 | Total | 638 | | |
Past visits | | | Drugs | | |
No | 351 | 82.78 | No | 403 | 95.05 |
Yes | 73 | 17.22 | Yes | 21 | 4.95 |
Total | 424 | | Total | 424 | |
Age | n | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | Median | Std. Variation |
| 638 | 18.00 | 37.00 | 21.72 | 21.0 | 2.79 |
Most of the students are still staying with their families during their studies (43.42%), whereas, the percentage of students who are staying in students’ dormitory is 24.61%. In the forthcoming analysis, this variable is categorized into 3 groups, indicating whether students are staying with their families, in students’ dormitory or somewhere else.
Almost half of the students originally come from Attica (48.28%), 47.18% who hail from the other parts of Greece and 4.55% from abroad. The majority of the students who visited the unit are undergraduate students who have not completed the fourth year of their studies (72.33%), whereas, 25.79% of the students are undergraduates who have not completed their studies after the fourth year. There is also a small percentage of postgraduate students (1.89%).
Almost half of the students declared that they do not have their own income, and 82.79% of the students are not working during their studies. The majority of the students in our sample are single (93.10%). The variables of income and family status are treated as binary (yes/no and married/not married) in the following analysis.
The Body Mass Index (BMI) is also calculated for the students, where it turns out that the majority of the students (76%) have normal weight, 16.16% are overweight or obese and 7.83% are underweight. In terms of their medical history, the majority of the students do not have a health problem, 17.22% of them have visited the unit in the past and 13.32% of the students have a psychiatric family history. There is a percentage of students (15.8%) who declared that they have experienced a traumatic death in their family and almost 5% of the students who visited the unit are addicted to drugs.
3.2. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)
Descriptive statistics for the scales of State-Trait anxiety inventory (STAI) are displayed in
Table 2. We examined the relation of the STAI scales with each of the students’ characteristics and found out that the state anxiety is significantly related with the family status of the students and the trait anxiety is significantly related with the past visits to the psychiatrist (
Table 3). Students who are married have on average higher scores on state anxiety scale than students who are not married (including single, divorced, separated or in cohabitation). Students who have visited the University psychiatric unit in the past have on average higher scores on trait anxiety scale than those who do not.
Table 2.
Descriptive statistics for State-Trait anxiety inventory (STAI) scale.
Table 2.
Descriptive statistics for State-Trait anxiety inventory (STAI) scale.
STAI | n | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | Std. Deviation |
---|
Trait Anxiety | 639 | 20.00 | 73.00 | 44.28 | 10.11 |
State Anxiety | 639 | 20.00 | 79.00 | 44.15 | 11.59 |
Table 3.
T-test for State-Trait anxiety inventory (STAI) scales with family status and past visits.
Table 3.
T-test for State-Trait anxiety inventory (STAI) scales with family status and past visits.
STAI | n | Mean | Std. Deviation | p-Value |
---|
State Anxiety | Family Status | | | | 0.024 |
Not married | 599 | 43.88 | 11.64 | |
Married | 39 | 48.21 | 10.29 | |
Trait Anxiety | Past Visit | | | | 0.039 |
No | 351 | 43.52 | 9.82 | |
Yes | 73 | 46.15 | 10.28 | |
The relations between the STAI scale and the students’ characteristics were further examined through linear regression analysis. The final model was selected through forward stepwise procedure, whereas, no significant interactions were found among the variables. It turns out that both state and trait anxiety scales vary among the schools that students are studying at, the students’ origin and their health status (
Table 4).
Students who hail from other parts of Greece are expected to score on average lower on STAI scale than the students from Attica while the other variables in the model are held constant. On the other hand, students from abroad are expected to score higher than students from Attica. Both state and trait scales differ significantly between the students who hail from other parts of Greece and Attica, whereas, only the state scale differs significantly between the students from abroad and Attica.
Students from the school of health science are expected on average to have lower scores on STAI scales than students from all other departments (including law, philosophy and science) given that the remaining variables do not change. The differences are significant for both scales. Students who reported that they have health problems are expected to have a higher score on STAI scales. Besides that, males are expected to have lower scores than females.
Table 4.
Linear regression coefficients for State and Trait anxiety scales.
Table 4.
Linear regression coefficients for State and Trait anxiety scales.
Demographic | State Anxiety | Trait Anxiety |
---|
B | p-Value | B | p-Value |
---|
Origin | | | | |
Hail from other parts of Greece | −2.95 | 0.002 | −2.58 | 0.002 |
Abroad | 4.71 | 0.033 | 2.37 | 0.218 |
School | | | | |
Law, Economics and Political Science | 4.36 | 0.010 | 2.41 | 0.100 |
Philosophy | 3.38 | 0.041 | 5.12 | <0.001 |
Science | 2.94 | 0.025 | 3.08 | 0.007 |
Other | 5.02 | 0.011 | 4.16 | 0.015 |
Health problem | | | | |
Yes | 3.15 | 0.040 | 3.04 | 0.023 |
Gender | | | | |
Male | −3.32 | <0.001 | −3.18 | <0.001 |
Age | 0.32 | 0.053 | 0.23 | 0.108 |
3.3. Results from Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)
Descriptive statistics for EPQ scales are summarized in
Table 5. The EPQ questionnaire consists of polar questions (yes/no) and from now and on we define as “
positive answer” the answer “
yes” in the questions with positive aspect and the answer “
no” in those with negative connotation. Therefore, each subscale is assumed to follow the binomial distribution with number of trials equal to the number of questions (24 for psychoticism, 22 for neuroticism and 19 for extraversion and lie) and the probability of success corresponds to the probability of positive answer. We therefore use binomial generalized linear models to examine the relations between the EPQ subscales and the students’ characteristics. The final models for each subscale are summarized in
Table 6. Students’ age and gender are included in the models, whereas, no interaction terms were found to be significant. The interpretation of the coefficients that follows is made under the assumption that all the other variables remain constant.
Table 5.
Descriptive statistics for Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) scales.
Table 5.
Descriptive statistics for Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) scales.
EPQ | n | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | Std. Deviation | Percentiles |
---|
25% | Median | 75% |
---|
Psychotism | 639 | 0 | 16.00 | 2.06 | 2.20 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 |
Neuroticism | 639 | 0 | 22.00 | 11.83 | 4.84 | 8.00 | 12.00 | 15.00 |
Extraversion | 639 | 0 | 19.00 | 13.38 | 4.27 | 11.00 | 14.00 | 17.00 |
Lie | 639 | 0 | 18.00 | 8.68 | 3.45 | 6.00 | 9.00 | 11.00 |
The subscale of psychoticism is significantly related to the students’ origin, school, family status, semester and the variable indicating if they are working or not. In particular, students who hail from other parts of Greece have lower odds of giving positive answers to the questions related with the psychoticism than students who come from Attica. On the other hand, students from abroad have higher odds than students from Attica. Students who are studying in the school of Philosophy have lower odds of giving positive answers than students in all the other departments. Particularly, students in the schools of Law, Economics and Political Science and in Science have significantly higher odds than the students of Philosophy. Students who are married have 50% higher probability of giving positive answers than the students who are not married. Students who are working during their studies have higher probability of scoring higher in psychoticism than students who are not working. Finally, students who are studying for more than four years have higher odds than those who have not completed the 4th year of their studies. On the other hand, postgraduate students have lower odds of giving positive answers than undergraduate students.
Table 6.
Binomial generalized lineal models for each subscale of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ).
Table 6.
Binomial generalized lineal models for each subscale of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ).
Demographic | Psychoticism | Neuroticism | Extraversion | Lie |
---|
OR | OR | OR | OR |
---|
Origin (Ref. level: Attica) | Hail from other parts of Greece | 0.69 *** | | | |
Abroad | 1.77 *** | | | |
School (Ref. level: Philosophy) | Law, Economics and Political Science | 1.60 *** | 1.07 | | |
Health | 1.23 | 0.85 | | |
Science | 1.34 ** | 0.75 ** | | |
Other | 1.20 | 0.78 | | |
Family status (Ref. level: Not married) | Married | 1.51 ** | | | |
Job (Ref. level: No) | Yes | 1.30 ** | | 1.38 *** | |
Semester (Ref. level: Undergraduate) | >4th year | 1.32 ** | | | |
Postgraduate | 0.46 * | | | |
Residence (Ref. level: Family) | Students’ residence | | | | 1.48 *** |
Other | | | | 1.24 ** |
Income (Ref. level: No) | Yes | | 1.24 ** | | |
Past visits (Ref. level: No) | Yes | | 1.31 ** | | |
Family history (Ref. level: No) | Yes | | | 0.77 ** | |
Drugs (Ref. level: No) | Yes | | | | 0.68 ** |
Traumatic Death (Ref. level: No) | Yes | | | | 0.82 ** |
Gender (Ref. level: Female) | Male | | 0.77** | | |
Age | | | | 0.96 ** | |
Pearson Chi-Square/df | | 2.19 *** | 3.89 ** | 4.53 *** | 2.39 *** |
The subscale of neuroticism is significantly related with the students’ school, and the variables indicating whether they have their own income and visited the psychiatric unit in the past. Students who are studying science have lower probability of scoring high in neuroticism than students in philosophy. Students who have their own income have higher odds to give positive answers than students without any income. Besides that, students who have visited the psychiatric unit in the past have 31% higher odds of giving positive answers than the students who have not visited the unit in the past. It turns out that males have significantly lower odds than females.
The subscale of extraversion is significantly related with the students’ family psychiatric history and whether they are working or not. Students who are working have higher odds of scoring higher in this scale than students who are not working. Students with a psychiatric family history have lower odds in giving positive answers to the questions concerning the extraversion than the students without a family history. Finally, older students tend to have lower odds than younger students.
The subscale of lie is significantly related to the students’ residence, their addiction to drugs and the occurrence of a traumatic death in their family. Students who are staying in students’ dormitory have almost 50% higher odds to give positive answers to the questions related with the lie scale than students who are staying with their family. Students who have other residence (including staying with brother/sisters, flat mates or alone) have 24% higher odds to give positive answers than the students who are staying with their family. Students who are addicted to drugs have lower odds than students who are not drug addicts. Finally, students who have experienced a traumatic death in their family have lower odds of scoring high in lie scale than students who do not have such experience.
3.4. Results from SCL-90
Descriptive statistics for the scales of SCL-90 are given in
Table 7. Robust linear regression models for each SCL-90 subscale were selected through the backward procedure and are displayed in
Table 8. Students who hail from other parts of Greece are expected to have higher scores on somatization and interpersonal sensitivity and lower scores on depression scale than students who are coming from Attica. Students from abroad are expected to have higher scores on obsessive compulsive, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism and lower scores on somatization and interpersonal sensitivity than students from Attica.
Table 7.
Descriptive statistics for SCL-90 scales.
Table 7.
Descriptive statistics for SCL-90 scales.
SCL-90 | n | Mean | Std. Deviation | Percentiles |
---|
25% | Median | 75% |
---|
Somatization | 639 | 6.69 | 7.93 | 1.00 | 3.00 | 10.00 |
Obsessive-Compulsive | 639 | 14.15 | 7.65 | 8.00 | 14.00 | 20.00 |
Interpersonal Sensitivity | 639 | 7.41 | 7.59 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 13.00 |
Depression | 639 | 15.70 | 10.01 | 8.00 | 14.00 | 22.00 |
Anxiety | 639 | 9.66 | 7.58 | 4.00 | 8.00 | 14.00 |
Hostility | 639 | 6.21 | 5.07 | 2.00 | 5.00 | 9.00 |
Phobic anxiety | 639 | 4.11 | 4.49 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 6.00 |
Paranoid Ideation | 639 | 7.09 | 5.01 | 3.00 | 6.00 | 10.00 |
Phychoticism | 639 | 8.11 | 7.10 | 3.00 | 6.00 | 12.00 |
Table 8.
Robust linear regression model for each scale of SCL-90.
Table 8.
Robust linear regression model for each scale of SCL-90.
Demographic | Somatization | Obsessive-Compulsive | Interpersonal Sensitivity | Depression | Anxiety | Hostility | Phobic Anxiety | Paranoid Ideation | Psychoticism |
---|
Origin (Ref. level: Attica) | Hail from other parts of Greece | 1.07 ** | −0.81 | 2.06 ** | −2.03 ** | | | −0.10 | −0.49 | −0.63 |
Abroad | −1.95 ** | 3.23 ** | −3.09 ** | 1.82 | | | 2.45 *** | 2.70 ** | 3.27 ** |
School (Ref. level: Philosophy) | Law, Economics and Political Science | −1.59 ** | −1.39 | −2.46 ** | −2.37 | | | −0.14 | −1.19 | −1.26 |
Health | −0.60 | −3.52 ** | −1.71 | −5.49 *** | | | −1.19 ** | −2.81 ** | −3.26 ** |
Science | −1.03 | −0.37 | −2.36 ** | −1.73 | | | −0.33 | −0.98 | −1.41 * |
Other | −2.19 | −0.55 | −3.00 ** | −2.46 | | | −0.08 | −0.72 | −1.44 |
Family status (Ref. level: Not married) | Married | | | −3.00 ** | | | | 1.42 ** | | 2.40 ** |
Semester (Ref. level: Undergraduate) | >4th year | −1.72 ** | | | | | | | | |
Postgraduate | 1.30 | | | | | | | | |
Residence (Ref. level: Family) | Students’ residence | | | 1.17 | | −1.64 ** | −1.01 ** | | | |
Other | | | −2.61 ** | | −0.72 | −0.89 * | | | |
BMI (Ref. level: Normal) | Underweight | 1.57 ** | | | | 3.30 ** | | 1.20 ** | | 2.17 ** |
Overweight/obese | 0.55 | | | | 0.98 | | 0.17 | | 0.90 |
Health Problem (Ref. level: No) | Yes | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | 4.01 ** | 2.77 ** | 1.64 ** | | 1.38 * | 3.01 ** |
Gender (Ref. level: Female) | Male | −1.35 ** | −1.71 ** | −0.87 | −3.23 *** | −1.76 ** | −0.16 | −0.86 ** | −0.05 | −0.29 |
Age | | −0.19 ** | 0.09 | −0.26 ** | 0.05 | −0.03 | −0.09 | −0.16 ** | −0.09 | −0.20 * |
Students who are studying Philosophy are expected to have higher scores on all the scales as shown in
Table 8. In particular, the expected scores of somatization and interpersonal sensitivity of the students from the school of philosophy are significantly greater than the students who are studying low, economics and political science. The students from health school are expected to score significantly lower in obsessive compulsive, depression, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism scales than the students in Philosophy.
Students who are married are expected to score significantly lower on the scale of interpersonal sensitivity and higher on phobic anxiety and psychoticism than students who are not married. Undergraduate students are expected to score significantly higher on the scale of somatization than students who are still studying after the fourth year. Underweight students are expected to score higher on the scales of somatization, anxiety, phobic anxiety and psychoticism than students with normal weight. Students who have been diagnosed with a health problem are expected to score significantly higher on the scales of depression, anxiety, hostility and psychoticism than healthy students.
Females are expected to score higher on somatization, obsessive compulsive, depression, anxiety and phobic anxiety than males. Finally, students’ age is significantly correlated with the scales of somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, phobic anxiety and psychoticism. Older students are expected to have lower values in these scales.
3.5. Beck’s Depression
The percentages of students in each category of BDI are given in
Table 9. The majority of the students (79.7%) do not suffer from depression according to BDI. However, 7.7% of the students have borderline clinical depression and 9.4% have moderate depression. Treating the scale as binary scale (depression/no depression) we examine its relations to the students’ characteristics and present the results in
Table 10. The logistic regression model is adjusted to age and gender.
Table 9.
Percentage of students in each category.
Table 9.
Percentage of students in each category.
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) |
---|
No depression | 509 (79.7%) |
Borderline clinical depression | 49 (7.7%) |
Moderate depression | 60 (9.4%) |
Severe or extreme depression | 21 (3.3%) |
Total | 639 |
Table 10.
Logistic regression coefficients for Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).
Table 10.
Logistic regression coefficients for Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).
Demographic | OR | p-Value |
---|
School | | <0.001 |
Law | 1.12 | 0.792 |
Health | 0.24 | 0.002 |
Science | 0.26 | <0.001 |
Other | 1.01 | 0.992 |
Residence | | <0.001 |
Students’ residence | 0.22 | <0.001 |
Other | 0.56 | 0.081 |
Health problem | | |
Yes | 2.07 | 0.057 |
Traumatic death | | |
Yes | 2.64 | 0.002 |
It turns out that students who are studying at Health and Science schools have lower probability of being diagnosed with depression than students in school of Philosophy. In particular, they have almost 75% lower odds of having depression than students in Philosophy, while all the other variables remain constant.
Depression is also related to the residence. Students who are staying in students’ dormitory or somewhere else have lower probability of having depression than those who are staying with their families, given that they have the same gender, age and all the other variables are the same. Students who have health problems are twice as likely to have depression as the students who do not have health problems. Students who have experienced a traumatic death in their families have higher odds of having depression than those who do not have such experience while the remaining variables are the same.
4. Discussion
The aim of this study is to explore the psychometric characteristics of the Greek college students. In an analysis of the results, it turns out that state and trait anxiety scales vary among the school students enrolled, their origin and health status. In addition, students from the school of Health science are expected on average to have lower scores on STAI scales than students from all other departments and students who have health problems are expected to have higher score on STAI scales. Heaman [
26], in a study which examined the effects of a 5-week stress management program for 40 junior baccalaureate students, found a significant reduction in state anxiety, while the state anxiety of the control groups remained relatively unchanged. Kawamoto
et al. [
27], in a study aiming to analyze the educational effect and the factors of psychological stress of bedside practice on psychiatric nursing students using the STAI-test, showed that the nursing students frequently complained about anxiety before the bedside practice because they had only studied about the psychoses. Brown
et al. [
28] in a study evaluating the effects of a single session of exercise and quiet rest on blood pressure and state anxiety response of physically challenged college students found that there was a significant decrease in state anxiety.
Exploring the results from the EPQ scale psychoticism is significantly related to the students’ origin, school, family status and semester. Students in the schools of Law, Economics and Political Science and in Science have significantly higher odds than the students in Philosophy and students who are studying for more than four years have higher odds than those who have not completed the 4th year of their studies.
The subscale of neuroticism is significantly related to the students’ school and the variables indicating whether they have their own income and have visited the psychiatric unit in the past. Students who are studying Science have lower probability of scoring high in neuroticism than students in Philosophy. Students who have their own income have higher odds of giving positive answers than students without any income. Besides that, students who have visited the psychiatric unit in the past have 31% higher odds of giving positive answers than the students who have not visited the unit in the past. It turns out that males have significantly lower odds than females (deleted).
The subscale of extraversion is significantly related to the students’ family psychiatric history and whether they are working or not. Students who are working have higher odds of scoring higher in this scale than students who are not working. Finally, older students tend to have lower odds than younger students. Grance
et al. [
29] found that certain personality characteristics such as sensation seeking, impulsivity, aggressiveness and extraversion are associated with alcoholism.
The subscale of lie is significantly related to the students’ residence, their addiction to drugs and the occurrence of a traumatic death in their family. Students who are staying in students’ dormitory have almost 50% higher odds of giving positive answers to the questions related to the lie scale than students who are staying with their family. Students who have other residence (including staying with brother/sisters, flat mates or alone) have 24% higher odds of giving positive answers than the students who are staying with their family. Students who are addicted to drugs have lower odds than students who are not drug addicts.
Students who originally come from Attica have, on average, higher scores in somatization, phobic anxiety and paranoid ideation than the other students. Students from abroad have, on average, higher scores in interpersonal sensitivity and psychoticism than students who hail from other parts of Greece. The mean scores of somatization, interpersonal sensitivity and depression of the students from the school of Philosophy are much higher than the other students. The students from Philosophy, Science and other departments score considerably higher on the scales of obsessive compulsive, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism than the students in Health school.
Zhang
et al. [
30] in a sample of Chinese college students found that the depression, somatization, obsessive-compulsive and phobic anxiety subscales of SCL-90 affect the university students and focused on the sport competition.
Hu
et al. [
31] investigated using the SCl-90the suicidal ideation among Chinese college students and discovered that one year prior to the investigation, 14.6% of respondents had suicide ideation, 2.5% had made a specific suicide plan, and 1.8% had made a suicide attempt. The main risk factors for suicide ideation were dissatisfaction with the selected major of study, limited social support, recent negative life events and depressive tendency. Jackson
et al. [
32], exploring the associations between psychological symptoms assessed by the Symptom Check List-90 and loneliness in college students, found a significant association between loneliness and interpersonal sensitivity and depression while Keane [
33] administered in 42 medical students the Opinion About Mental Illness (OMI) questionnaire and Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) and found out that the students’ own psychological distress did not have an effect on attitude change. Luo
et al. [
34], exploring, in a study, the factors affecting 288 college nurse students’ psychological status, and the interactions between mental symptoms and stressful factors, found positive correlations between stressful events and the total score of SCL-90.
The majority of the students (79.7%) do not suffer from depression according to the Beck’s depression inventory scale. However, 7.7% of the students have borderline clinical depression and 9.4% have moderate depression. Students who are staying in students’ dormitory or somewhere else have lower probability of having depression than those who are staying with their families, given that they have the same gender, age and all the other variables are the same. Students who have health problems are twice as likely to have depression as the students who do not have health problems. Students who have experienced a traumatic death in their families have higher odds of having depression than those who do not have such experience while the entire remaining variables are the same. Catanzaro
et al. [
35] in astudy administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in a sample of 1.177 college students. The results show a wide range of scores suggesting that some of these college students reported high levels of dysphoria (32.7%) scored 10 or greater, a commonly accepted cut-off for mild depression in clinical contexts, with 87 subjects (7.4%) scoring at or above the recommended cut-off for moderate depression. Garsia-Villamisar
et al. [
36] in study examined the relationship between eating disorders, depressive mood by using the Beck Depression Scale and perfectionism in female undergraduate Spanish students. The results demonstrated the importance of socially prescribed perfectionism in mediation of the relationship between depressive mood and symptoms of eating disorders. In another study Sing
et al. [
37], aiming to clarify that insomnia exerts a mediating or moderating effect on the optimism-depression association in 529 Chinese college students who completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), found that insomnia qualifies as a mediator, suggesting considerable variance in depressive symptoms of college students could be due to change in their sleep pattern. Moo-Estrella
et al. [
38] evaluated the prevalence of depressive symptoms, and possible sleep disturbances in 340 college students using the Beck Depression Inventory and Epworth Sleepiness Scale and found diverse sleep alterations in large proportion of the studied subjects, which were more severe in those who showed depressive symptoms. Finally, Tashakkori
et al. [
39], investigating the factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory in 405 college students, found that the most general factor seemed to be a measure of helplessness and self-devaluation confirming the usefulness of the BDI as a measure of depression. This study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the Greek students in the initial assessment and felt that the approximation of individual elements of psychopathology, like sleep disorders or the use of drugs or alcohol in the college student population, could clarify their psychosocial needs.