Influence of family environment on mental health of graduate students

Objective To explore the influence of family environment on mental health of graduate students.Method A total of 1 950 graduate students from one university in Beijing were administered with Family Environment Scale-Chinese Version(FES-CV) and SCL-90.Results Female students had higher scores than male graduate students in somatization,compulsion,depression,anxiety,phobic and total scores of SCL-90.There was no significant difference in total score of SCL-90 between master and doctoral graduate students,while the difference in phobic score was found.About 10%(193) of all students suffer from mental health problems.There were significant differences in the 9 family environments factor scores between students with and without mental health problems.Results of regression analysis showed that mental health of master student was predicted by cohesion,conflict,active-recreational orientation,expressiveness,intellectual-cultural orientation,achievement orientation and organization of family environment.Those explained 22.7% variance.Nevertheless,only active-recreational orientation and conflict of family environment have predictive value on doctoral students,which accounted for 18.3% variance.Conclusion Family environment could characterize mental health among graduate students,especially those in master degree and female students.