Associations between the sense of school belonging and mental health status among medical students during the post-epidemic period / 中华医学教育探索杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the status of medical students' sense of school belonging and its relationship with depression and anxiety symptoms in the context of COVID-19 prevention and control.Methods:An online questionnaire survey was conducted among 1 629 full-time students from 8 medical universities. The 18-item psychological sense of school membership scale (PSSM-18), 9-item patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9), and 7-item generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-7) were used as measurements. Spearman correlation coefficients were used to analyze the correlations between PSSM-18, PHQ-9, and GAD-7 scores. Logistic regressions were used to analyze the impact of lack of school belonging on depression and anxiety symptoms.Results:The mean score of school belonging was (77.31±14.12), and the detection rates of depression and anxiety symptoms were 25.97% (423/1 629) and 21.92% (357/1 629), respectively. PSSM-18 score was negatively correlated with PHQ-9 scores ( r=-0.52, P<0.001) and GAD-7 scores ( r= -0.49, P < 0.001). After adjusting for covariates, students with low school belongingness had 4.33 times the risk of depression symptoms ( OR=4.33, 95%CI=2.48-7.43) and 5.85 times the risk of anxiety symptoms ( OR= 5.85, 95%CI=3.76-8.15) compared to students with high school belongingness. Conclusion:Lack of school belonging increases the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms. Under the normalization of COVID-19 prevention and control, the school should strengthen health education and support services to improve the students' sense of belonging and alleviate their mental health problems.