The Mental Health Of Journal Editor Among Universities In Anhui Province And Its Correlation With Social Support And Occupational Burnout

Objective To study the status of mental health and its associated factors of journaleditor among universities in Anhui province, providing scientific basis to improve it.Methods Convenient sampling，92journal editors from50universities at Anhuiprovince were selected for this study. The questionnaire was processed through theSocial Support Scale, Burnout Inventory and Symptom Checklist90(SCL-90). Thestatistical methods of T-test and ANOVA were introduced to explore the status of editormental health and its differences between different demographic variables. Thestatistical method of spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlationbetween status of editor mental health and social support，occupational burnout. Thestepwise multiple regression analysis was adopted to explore the value of variousdimensions of social support and occupational burnout for predicting part of the SCL-90positive factors.Results (1) The total score of SCL-90was132.71±25.90,and each factors of SCL-90,such as somatization, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, interpersonal sensitivity,depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychotic factor was1.47±0.38,1.71±0.48,1.51±0.42,1.50±0.38,1.43±0.36,1.42±0.37,1.22±0.27,1.49±0.39, and1.40±0.27respectively. In this study,16cases’ SCL-90score wasabove or equal to160, and its positive rate was17.4%. The detection rate ofobsessive-compulsive symptoms was the highest, accounting for30.4%, and the secondinterpersonal sensitivity accounting for17.4%, the third eating and sleeping problemaccounting for15.2%, and the lowest paranoid ideation or psychotic factor was all4.3%.(2) Comparing the score of SCL-90and every factors with that of national adult norm,the total score of SCL-90was no statistical significance (P>0.05). Among the factors of SCL-90, the scores of somatization and psychotic factor were higher than that ofnational adult norm (P<0.05), but the score of interpersonal sensitivity was lower thanthat of national adult norm (P<0.05). There was no statistical significance between thescores of obsessive compulsive symptoms, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety,paranoid and the score of national adult norm (P>0.05).(3) The differences of genderimpacted the total score of SCL-90and score of interpersonal sensitivity, obsessivecompulsive symptoms, depression anxiety and phobic factors, and there was statisticalsignificant (P＜0.05-P＜0.01). The differences of marital status also had effect onscores of somatization and obsessive compulsive symptoms factors (P＜0.05-P＜0.01).The differences of job title impacted the scores of obsessive compulsive symptoms andphobic factors (P＜0.05-P＜0.01). The differences of age impacted scores of eating andsleeping factors (P＜0.05-P＜0.01). The differences of employment time impactedscores of hostility, paranoid ideation, and psychosis factors (P＜0.05-P＜0.01). Thedifferences of publication cycle had effect on scores of anxiety factor (P＜0.01). But thedifferences of degree had no effect on scores of SCL-90and every factors (P>0.05).(4)Factors of subjective support showed negative correlation with factors of obsessivecompulsive symptoms, depression and anxiety (P<0.05). Except factors of the paranoidideation, factors of objective support and support utilization showed negativecorrelation with every factors of SCL-90(P＜0.05～P＜0.01). Factors of emotionalexhaustion showed positive correlation with factors of SCL-90(P＜0.01). Cynicismshowed positive correlation with somatization, obsessive compulsive symptoms,interpersonal sensitivity, depression and hostility factor(P＜0.05-P＜0.01). Lowachievement also showed positive correlation with factors of SCL-90except paranoidideation and psychotic factors(P＜0.05-P＜0.01). Subjective support showed negativecorrelation with every dimension of job burnout (P＜0.05). Support utilization showedsignificant negative correlation with each dimension of occupational burnout (P＜0.01).(5) Multiple regression analysis showed that emotional exhaustion and low sense ofachievement can predict the somatiztion factor of SCL-90, and it explained27.3%of the total variable of somatiztion factor. Low sense of achievement, utilization of supportand emotional exhaustion also can predict the somatiztion factor of SCL-90, and itexplained25.9%of the total variable of somatiztion factor. Emotional exhaustion andsupport utilization can predict the psychosis factor of SCL-90, and it explained13.2%of the total variable of psychosis factor. Conclusions：(1) There was no differencebetween the overall level of mental health and that of national adult norm. The scores ofsomatic and psychiatric factors were higher than that of national adult norm, but thescore of interpersonal sensitivity factors was lower than that of national adult norm.(2)Among variables of social demography, differences of gender, marital status, occupation,age, employment time and periodical publishing cycle all showed significant effect onpart of SCL-90factors.(3) The more social support, the better mental health, the higherlevels of job burnout, the poorer mental health. Factors of social support, job burnout,and so on, showed effect on the mental health of editors in different degree. Increasingsocial support, reducing job burnout can improve the level of mental health.