Analysis of the effect of personality factors on mental health and its mediating effect in navy air force / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the influence of personality factors on mental health and its mediating variables in the support officers and soldiers of a certain navy air force unit. Methods A total of 1311 participants from the support officers and soldiers of a certain navy air force unit were selected. Cattell's 16 Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF), Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ), Military General Information Questionnaire designed by authors, Zung's Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Self-Rating Scale of Sleep (SRSS) were used to assess the personality factors, automatic thoughts, general events and mental health level respectively. And structural equation model was used to analyze the mediating effect of automatic thoughts and general events between the personality factors and mental health, and the significance of mediating effect was tested with Bootstrap method. Results The participants' average rough scores of SAS were (29.72±6.26), and 6.10% of the subjects (80/1311) were anxious (standard score of SAS≥50); while the average standard scores of SDS were (38.83±10.76), 11.21% (147/1311) of the subjects were depressive (standard score of SDS≥53); and the average scores of SRSS were (19.59±5.81). There is a significant correlation between the subjects' adaptation and anxiety type, mental health factors and ATQ total score, general evaluation total score and SDS, SAS, SRSS score (P0.05), which indicated that general events and automatic thoughts totally mediated the relationship between the personality factors and mental health. While for indirect effects of mental health personality factors model, the 95%CI was (-0.307-0.217, P<0.01), and for the direct effects, the 95%CI was (-0.299-0.137, P<0.01). Conclusions It suggested that the mental health condition of the support officers and soldiers in a certain navy air force unit is still acceptable. Age, educational level, personality factors, general events and automatic thoughts could affect the mental health, and the personality factors may affect the mental health mediated by general events and automatic thoughts.