Relationship Among Employment Stress, Coping Style And Mental Health Of The Impoverished Undergraduates

Combined questionnaires and semi-structured interview, the present study surveyed650junior and senior undergraduates in Wuhan by using Undergraduates Career Placement Survey, SCSQ, SAS and SDS to investigate the status of employment stress, coping style and mental health, and to explore the relationship among them; furthermore, the present study explored the characteristics of employment stress, coping style and mental health to confirm and supplement the results of the questionnaires. The aim of this study was to provide scientific basis on impoverished undergraduates’mental health education and vocational guidance.The results of the present study showed:1. The employment stress of the impoverished undergraduates was in the medium range, and significantly higher than the non-impoverished undergraduates. The impoverished undergraduates scored higher than average on the dimensions of employment competition and the unbalanced major supply-demand, and the score of the dimension of lacking related support was approximate to average; there were significant differences between the impoverished undergraduates of different gender, career choices and hometowns.2. The score of positive and negative coping of the impoverished undergraduates were significantly lower than average, but there was no difference between impoverished and non-impoverished undergraduates. The impoverished undergraduates who come from different areas, having different part-time job experiences and being class leaders having different significantly coping styles. Those who come from villages and towns and who have the part-time job experiences adopted significantly more positive coping, those who were class leaders used significantly fewer negative coping.3.The detectable rate of the impoverished undergraduates were29.1%and42.5%on anxiety and depression, respectively. Students who were class leaders scored lower on SAS and SDS than those who were not.4. The employment stress was correlated to mental health significantly:the score of employment stress was positively related to the scores on SAS and SDS. The employment stress was correlated to coping styles significantly:the score of evaluation of professional skills was negatively related to the score of positive coping; the score of dimensions of evaluation of professional skills, employment competition, self-identification, career expectation and lacking related support were all positively related to the score of negative coping. Coping style is correlated to mental health significantly:the score of positive coping was negatively related to both the score on SAS and SDS; the score of negative coping is positively related to both the score on SAS and SDS.5. The result of regression analysis showed that employment stress, coping style were good predictors of mental health; path analysis and mesomeric effect examination showed that coping styles can be regarded as the mediator of employment stress to mental health.6. The result of interview indicated that two additional factors, the expectation of parents and self-worth were also the sources of employment stress for the impoverished undergraduates.Finally, based on the results of questionnaire, the present study gave several specific suggestions to improve the mental health of impoverished undergraduates and promote their success on job-hunting.