Irrational beliefs, depression, anxiety and stress of university students in Hong Kong

Abstract

Stress, depression and anxiety in university students has become a great concern globally. University students nowadays face many challenges, not merely from academic demands, but from interpersonal affairs, career path planning, financial burdens, and so forth. Literature review shows that university students may harbor irrational beliefs that could play a significant role in causing emotional disturbances (specifically stress, depression and anxiety). However, these irrational beliefs vary across different societies with different cultural values, academic workloads, family expectations and peer relationships.

The aims of this study were to construct a culturally relevant scale for measuring irrational beliefs among university students in the Hong Kong Chinese context, to examine the relationship of irrational beliefs with emotional disturbances (specifically stress, anxiety and depression) in university students, and to investigate the differences in irrational beliefs and depression, anxiety, and stress between groups having different socio-demographic, academic and environmental backgrounds.

The construction of the Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational Attitude Scale (CIBRAS) for university students was based on (i) literature review (ii) expert panel review for content validity evaluation, (iii) a pilot test of 200 HKU students to determine the scale’s psychometric properties and probe the exploratory factor analysis, and (iv) confirmatory factor analysis to test for construct validity of the CIBRAS (conducted with a further 655 HKU students). The results showed that the five-factor 19-item CIBRAS had good psychometric properties, including good internal consistency (Cronbach Alphas ranging from 0.64 to 0.80), content validity (CVI=0.96 for relevance, 0.94 for clarity and 0.94 for representativeness), construct validity (explaining 60.1% of the total variance), and adequate fit indices (NC=2.8, CFI=.94, NFI=.93, NNFI=.93, IFI=.94, RMSEA=.075, and SRMR=.074).

The SEM results also showed that the model of Irrational Beliefs in Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students had good fit (NC=2.68, CFI=.94, NFI=.91, NNFI=.93, IFI=.94, RMSEA=.051 and SRMR=.082). The results showed that university students having higher levels of irrational beliefs were more likely to have depression, anxiety and stress.

Two-way MANOVA results showed that second-year students had more awfulizing beliefs than third-year students in the faculties of Engineering and Education. ANOVA results and the Independent Sample t-test revealed that male students, students from low income families, law students, those pursuing 5-year programs, those in the second year of study, or those living with family or with inconvenient access to public transportation were likely to have more irrational beliefs. In addition, male students, medical students, those studying 5-year programs, those with inconvenient access to public transportation, those sharing living arrangements with others or those with insufficient living space were found having significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress.

By developing the CIBRAS and understanding the relationship between irrational beliefs and depression, anxiety and stress, this study provides important implications for educational practitioners, policymakers, and clinical professionals working with university students in Hong Kong and similar cultural contexts. This study also sheds light on potential avenues for future research.