Structural modeling of personality, life style, many factors and mental health for medical students

Objective To build relationship model of personality, life style and mental health for medical students. Methods 869 medical students were surveyed with Eysenk Personality Questionnaire, Symptom Check List 90(SCL-90), common condition questionnaire, to describe the situation of medical students mental health and personality, and a relationship model was set up by structural equation modeling. Results The situation of mental health for medical students was well. Male students showed significantly higher lie than female students. The only children showed significant higher lie than those having siblings. Neuroticism, life style, lie, sleep time everyday, boarding and lodging in middle school, friends, only child, degree of parents attention had significant direct influence on mental health (β =0.508, 0.136, 0.100, 0.082, 0.076, -0.057, 0.057, 0.051 ). Neuroticism, friends and sleep time everyday affected mental health in an indirect way through life style (β = 0.044, - 0. 008, 0.007). Only child affected mental health in an indirect way through boarding and lodging in middle school (β = -0.026). Lie affected mental health in an indirect way through neuroticism (β =0. 195). Conclusion The important effects of personality, life style on mental health are further supported in this study. Key words: Mental health; Personality; Medical students; Structural equation modeling