325 – On the Relationship Between Coping Strategies and Mental Health of Students

Abstract

Introduction:

Mental health is a phenomenon which has been considered by psychologists, medical doctors and religious scholars and it is a combination of physical, social and cognitive factors.

Objectives:

This study was done to achieve the effect of teaching coping skills in providing mental health in students of Ardabil University of medical sciences.

Aims:

Due to the nature and aims of the study, the study method was experimental research method.

Methods:

The samples of the present study comprised all male and female students (n = 112) at Ardabil university of medical sciences and gained 23 or more in GHQ-28 questionnaire at the next stage the samples were selected randomly and divided in 2 groups then, coping skills were taught to the experimental group for 4 weeks and no variable was exposed to the control group during this period at the end, the data from 62 individuals were analyzed by independent test.

Results:

The results showed that teaching coping skills effects on decreasing mental disorders symptoms especially somatization of symptoms and anxiety of students suspected to the mental disorder (R < 0.001) but the teaching coping skills do not effect on decreasing depression and disorder of social functioning of students.

Conclusions:

This study showed that teaching coping skills is a good method in decreasing mental disorders symptoms among the students suspected to the mental disorder. Therefore it is suggested that in order to prevent and decrease mental disorders symptoms the coping skills should be taught to students.