Modeling the direct and indirect relationships between cognitive style, daily life stress and mental distress

Abstract

Objective: Daily life stress is a trigger of mental illness in college students who are in late adolescence and in the dominant age group of mental illness. This study clarified the effects of the cognitive style of empathizing-systemizing(E-S) together with daily life stress on mental distress through a mediation process with cognitive appraisal and coping style. Gender differences in the relationship were also investigated. Method: The scales of empathizing and systemizing, daily life stress, cognitive appraisal rating, tri-axial coping, and Hopkins symptom checklist were administrated to second-year Japanese college students using an anonymous questionnaire. The size of 804 (403 men, and 401 women) cross-sectional data, with the average age of 19.62 years were obtained. The valid response rate was 82.4%. Results: Simultaneous multiple group analysis revealed that higher mental distress was directly associated with lower empathizing in men, while it was associated with higher systemizing in women. The model showed that the effects of E-S and daily life stress on mental distress were mediated by the mediation process. The relationship between daily life stress and mental distress was smaller than that between E-S and mental distress. The E-S directly related to cognitive appraisal which were also predicted by daily life stress, but not directly related to coping. Limitations: This study is a cross-sectional study. Future longitudinal studies are needed to identify causal relationships between cognitive styles and strategies, and mental distress. Conclusions: The cognitive style (E-S) can be more important indicators of mental distress than daily life stress in late adolescent college students.

Keywords

• Cognitive style
• Empathizing-systemizing
• Daily life stress
• Mental distress
• Late adolescence