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

Academic stress, depression, and anxiety among university students has been a great concern globally. Literature review shows that university students may harbor irrational beliefs that could play a significant role in causing emotional disturbances. Objective: The aims of this study were to examine the relationship of irrational beliefs with emotional disturbances in university students, and the differences in irrational beliefs and depression, anxiety, and stress between students with different socio-demographic and academic backgrounds. Participants and method: Data was collected from 655 local Hong Kong university students. Results and conclusions: 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. Results of ANOVA and the Independent Sample t-test revealed that male students, students from low income families, Law students, those pursuing 5-year programs, or those in the second year of study were likely to have more irrational beliefs. In addition, male students, medical students, those studying 5-year programs were found having significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Limitations and implications were discussed.