The effects of hardiness personality on mental health among Chinese medical students: coping styles of Intermediation and the moderating role of the nature of the school

Background Medical students are a unique group of people whose intensive academic workload and extensive curriculum content make it challenging for them to balance academic pursuits, professional development, and personal life. Methods: In this study, a cross-sectional research method was used to investigate 1,360 medical students from different medical colleges and universities in Hefei City, Anhui Province, using the Hardiness Scale (HS), the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ), and the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). In the analysis, correlation, linear regression and structural equation modeling were used to identify the mediating and moderating roles. Purpose: This study aimed to explore the effects of hardiness personality and coping styles on the mental health of medical students, and to provide theoretical references and practical bases for the mental health interventions for medical students by constructing the corresponding structural equation models to reveal the complex relationship among the three and the moderating role of the nature of the school. Conclusion: The psychological health of Chinese medical students is significantly associated with hardiness personality and positive coping style. The SCL-90 scores of medical students were significantly different from those of the national college students' norms, and the positive rate of their mental health status reached 28.8%. Coping styles fully mediated the relationship between hardiness personality and mental health among Chinese medical students, and the nature of school partially moderated the relationship between hardiness personality and positive coping styles, with no significant moderating effect on negative coping styles.