Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.25673/101636
Title: A comparison of depressive symptoms in medical and psychology students in Germany : associations with potential risk and resilience factors
Author(s): Kindt, Tordis
Rabkow, Nadja
Pukas, Lilith
Keuch, Lea
Sapalidis, Alexandra
Piloty-Leskien, Anna
Röhler, Jonas
Proyer, René T.Look up in the Integrated Authority File of the German National Library
Watzke, StefanLook up in the Integrated Authority File of the German National Library
Issue Date: 2022
Type: Article
Language: English
Abstract: Background: Previous studies have shown that medical students are more prone to suffer from symptoms related to depression than other students. Even though there is some evidence that psychology students also experience such symptoms, research concerning the mental health of future psychologists is scarce. Objective: The aims of this study were threefold: (a) to determine the prevalence of symptoms related to depression among medical and psychology students (b) to investigate risk factors, which may have a potential influence on the development of depressive symptoms and (c) to examine resilience factors in order to indicate possible approaches to improve the mental health of the students. Methods: A total of 673 medical and psychology students completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) to assess depressive symptoms, a neuroticism scale, and a standardized questionnaire for 13 risk and eight resilience factors derived from the literature. Results: While the results of previous research concerning the prevalence of depressive symptoms could be replicated for medical students (22% exceeding the cut-off in the BDI-II), psychology students demonstrated an even higher prevalence (28%). Ten potential risk factors and five potential resilience factors could be identified, which also showed a cumulative effect: The more risk factors students reported, the more depressive symptoms they experienced; the inverse effect was observed for resilience factors. Conclusions: Not only medical but also psychology students show elevated depressive symptomatology. In the university context, notably, the pressure to perform represents a potential risk factor, whereas the presence of just two resilience factors such as emotional support and study satisfaction contribute to a decrease of symptoms.
URI: https://opendata.uni-halle.de//handle/1981185920/103583
http://dx.doi.org/10.25673/101636
Open Access: Open access publication
License: (CC BY-NC 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0(CC BY-NC 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
Journal Title: Journal of medical psychology
Publisher: IOS Press
Publisher Place: Amsterdam
Volume: 24
Issue: 1
Original Publication: 10.3233/jmp-200023
Page Start: 9
Page End: 21
Appears in Collections:Open Access Publikationen der MLU

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
jmp_2022_24-1_jmp-24-1-jmp200023_jmp-24-jmp200023.pdf199.04 kBAdobe PDFThumbnail
View/Open