Path Analysis of Self-Efficacy, Critical Thinking Skills and Emotional Intelligence for Mental Health of Medical Students

Background: Mental health of medical students can be affect by quality of services in hospitals; therefore, it is essential to evaluate its effective factors. However, according to the available data, there were no similar published studies that assess the possibility of linkage between these factors with mental health, in Iranian medical students. Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the pathways applied by self-efficacy, critical thinking skills, and emotional intelligence, which influences the mental health of medical students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was implemented in 2016. The population of the study consisted of medical students in Mazandaran University(Sari, Iran). Self-efficacy questionnaire of Sheerer, critical thinking skills of California (Form B), standard emotional intelligence questionnaire of Petridis, and general health questionnaire of Goldberg were used for data collecting. The data were analyzed in SPSS 18.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) by descriptive and inferential statistic operations (path analysis). Results: The results showed that the average age of students participating in the study was 22.68 (SD =1.12; 95% CI =21.56 - 23.87). The direct path coefficient for critical thinking of mental health was -0.25, which was negative and significant (P < 0.001). In addition, a direct relationship between the emotional intelligence and mental health was found (path coefficient =-0.39). Conclusions: Generally, the results showed that both emotional intelligence and critical thinking play an important role in the mental health of self-reliant students. In addition to a direct effect, emotional intelligence had an impact on self-efficacy mediated mental health.