Intermediary role of self-consistency and congruence on relationship between stress and depression among medical postgraduates

Objective To explore the role of self-consistency and congruence on the relationship between stress and depression among medical postgraduates.Methods Totally 550 medical postgraduates were selected with cluster random sampling and surveyed with Perceived Stress Scale (PPS),Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS),and Self Consistency and Congruence Scale (SCCS).Descriptive analysis,correlation analysis,and hierarchical regression analysis were performed with SPSS 17.0.Results Of the postgraduates,282(57.67%)reported perceived stress for health risk and 207(42.33%)did not reported the stress.The number of the postgraduates had low,intermediate,and high score of self-consistency and congruence were 62(12.68%),364(74.44%),and 63(12.88%),respectively.Only 6(1.23%)were detected with depression symptoms and 483(98.77%)showed no depression symptoms.The overall stress score was positively correlated with total depression score(r=0.510,P=0.000)and total score of self-consistency and congruence(r=0.494,P=0.000);the total depression score was positively associated with the total score of self-consistency and congruence(r=0.648,P=0.000).The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that the regression coefficient between stress score and depression score diminished significantly when the score of self-consistency and congruence was introduced into the regression equation(P < 0.01).Conclusion Self-consistency and congruence plays a partial intermediary role on the relationship between stress and depression among medical postgraduates.