Psychological well-being, depression, and anxiety in Japanese university students

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In order to further investigate the relationship of psychological well-being with depression and anxiety. METHOD: Students from five universities were solicited to participate in this study and 545 students with a mean age of 20.1 (SD = 2.2) years were finally accessed to analysis. RESULT: All six dimensions-autonomy (AU), environment mastery (EM), personal growth (PG), positive relationships with others (PR), purpose in life (PL), and self-acceptance (SA)-of the Scales of Psychological Well-being Inventory (SPWB) were moderately negatively correlated with depression and anxiety as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Furthermore, due to a good fit with the present data, the model of SPWB on depression and anxiety was consistent with the theory of psychological well-being and indicated that HADS depression was predicted by EM, PR, and SA, while HADS anxiety was predicted by AU, EM, PG, PR, and SA. CONCLUSION: SPWB is a reliable measure of well-being for Japanese young adults, and the negative affectivity such as depression and anxiety is to some extent determined by the lack of psychological well-being.