Relationship of Mental Health, Social Support, and Coping Styles among Graduate Students: Evidence from Chinese Universities

BACKGROUND: The increasing number of graduate students in China has resulted in the wide concern for their mental health problems. The coping style and social support are important factors that affect the mental health of individuals. This study aims to explore the relationship of the mental health, social support, and coping style of graduate students. METHODS: The sample consisted of 260 graduate students from three universities of China. The participants were evaluated using the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), Social Support Revalued Scale (SSRS), and Coping Style Questionnaire (CSQ) in October and November 2017. The data of the scale were analyzed with t-test, correlation, and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The graduate students had lower scores than the national norm standard on all subscales, except for anxiety and phobic anxiety in the SCL-90. Graduate students’ mental health was significantly negatively correlated with social support, problem-solving, and help-seeking and significantly positively correlated with self-blame, fantasy, withdrawal, and rationalization. Coping style and social support affected the mental health of graduate students, in which the regression coefficients of the subscales of problem-solving, rationalization, self-blame, and fantasy were −0.168, 0.070, 0.125, and 0.113, respectively. The regression coefficients of the subscales of subjective and objective supports were −0.086 and −0.024, respectively. CONCLUSION: The positive coping style and social support improve the level of graduate students’ mental health through the gain effect and alleviate abnormal psychological symptoms. The conclusions of this study can provide a reference to improve the psychological intervention strategies for graduate students.