research topics regarding stress

• Research Article
• Open access
• Published: 06 April 2021

Health anxiety, perceived stress, and coping styles in the shadow of the COVID-19

• Szabolcs Garbóczy 1 , 2 ,
• Anita Szemán-Nagy 3 ,
• Mohamed S. Ahmad 4 ,
• Szilvia Harsányi 1 ,
• Dorottya Ocsenás 5 , 6 ,
• Viktor Rekenyi 4 ,
• Ala’a B. Al-Tammemi 1 , 7 &
• László Róbert Kolozsvári   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9426-0898 1 , 7  

BMC Psychology volume  9 , Article number:  53 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

17k Accesses

44 Citations

7 Altmetric

Metrics details

In the case of people who carry an increased number of anxiety traits and maladaptive coping strategies, psychosocial stressors may further increase the level of perceived stress they experience. In our research study, we aimed to examine the levels of perceived stress and health anxiety as well as coping styles among university students amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online-based survey at the University of Debrecen during the official lockdown in Hungary when dormitories were closed, and teaching was conducted remotely. Our questionnaire solicited data using three assessment tools, namely, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ), and the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI).

A total of 1320 students have participated in our study and 31 non-eligible responses were excluded. Among the remaining 1289 participants, 948 (73.5%) and 341 (26.5%) were Hungarian and international students, respectively. Female students predominated the overall sample with 920 participants (71.4%). In general, there was a statistically significant positive relationship between perceived stress and health anxiety. Health anxiety and perceived stress levels were significantly higher among international students compared to domestic ones. Regarding coping, wishful thinking was associated with higher levels of stress and anxiety among international students, while being a goal-oriented person acted the opposite way. Among the domestic students, cognitive restructuring as a coping strategy was associated with lower levels of stress and anxiety. Concerning health anxiety, female students (domestic and international) had significantly higher levels of health anxiety compared to males. Moreover, female students had significantly higher levels of perceived stress compared to males in the international group, however, there was no significant difference in perceived stress between males and females in the domestic group.

The elevated perceived stress levels during major life events can be further deepened by disengagement from home (being away/abroad from country or family) and by using inadequate coping strategies. By following and adhering to the international recommendations, adopting proper coping methods, and equipping oneself with the required coping and stress management skills, the associated high levels of perceived stress and anxiety could be mitigated.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

On March 4, 2020, the first cases of coronavirus disease were declared in Hungary. One week later, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic [ 1 ]. The Hungarian government ordered a ban on outdoor public events with more than 500 people and indoor events with more than 100 participants to reduce contact between people [ 2 ]. On March 27, the government imposed a nationwide lockdown for two weeks effective from March 28, to mitigate the spread of the pandemic. Except for food stores, drug stores, pharmacies, and petrol stations, all other shops and educational institutions remained closed. On April 16, a week-long extension was further announced [ 3 ].

The COVID-19 pandemic with its high morbidity and mortality has already afflicted the psychological and physical wellbeing of humans worldwide [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. During major life events, people may have to deal with more stress. Stress can negatively affect the population’s well-being or function when they construe the situation as stressful and they cannot handle the environmental stimuli [ 10 ]. Various inter-related and inter-linked concepts are present in such situations including stress, anxiety, and coping. According to the literature, perceived stress can lead to higher levels of anxiety and lower levels of health-related quality of life [ 11 ]. Another study found significant and consistent associations between coping strategies and the dimensions of health anxiety [ 12 ].

Health anxiety is one of the most common types of anxiety and it describes how people think and behave toward their health and how they perceive any health-related concerns or threats. Health anxiety is increasingly conceptualized as existing on a spectrum [ 13 , 14 ], and as an adaptive signal that helps to develop survival-oriented behaviors. It also occurs in almost everyone’s life to a certain degree and can be rather deleterious when it is excessive [ 13 , 14 ]. Illness anxiety or hypochondriasis is on the high end of the spectrum and it affects someone’s life when it interferes with daily life by making people misinterpret the somatic sensations, leading them to think that they have an underlying condition [ 14 ].

According to the American Psychiatric Association—Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition), Illness anxiety disorder is described as a preoccupation with acquiring or having a serious illness, and it reflects the high spectrum of health anxiety [ 15 ]. Somatic symptoms are not present or if they are, then only mild in intensity. The preoccupation is disproportionate or excessive if there is a high risk of developing a medical condition (e.g., family history) or the patient has another medical condition. Excessive health-related behaviors can be observed (e.g., checking body for signs of illness) and individuals can show maladaptive avoidance as well by avoiding hospitals and doctor appointments [ 15 ].

Health anxiety is indeed an important topic as both its increase and decrease can progress to problems [ 14 ]. Looking at health anxiety as a wide spectrum, it can be high or low [ 16 ]. While people with a higher degree of worry and checking behaviors may cause some burden on healthcare facilities by visiting them too many times (e.g., frequent unnecessary visits), other individuals may not seek medical help at healthcare units to avoid catching up infections for instance. A lower degree of health anxiety can lead to low compliance with imposed regulations made to control a pandemic [ 17 ].

The COVID-19 pandemic as a major event in almost everyone’s life has posed a great impact on the population’s perceived stress level. Several studies about the relation between coping and response to epidemics in recent and previous outbreaks found higher perceived stress levels among people [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Being a woman, low income, and living with other people all were associated with higher stress levels [ 18 ]. Protective factors like being emotionally more stable, having self-control, adaptive coping strategies, and internal locus of control were also addressed [ 19 , 20 ]. The findings indicated that the COVID-19 crisis is perceived as a stressful event. The perceived stress was higher amongst people than it was in situations with no emergency. Nervousness, stress, and loss of control of one’s life are the factors that are most connected to perceived stress levels which leads to the suggestion that unpredictability and uncontrollability take an important part in perceived stress during a crisis [ 19 , 20 ].

Moreover, certain coping styles (e.g., having a positive attitude) were associated with less psychological distress experiences but avoidance strategies were more likely to cause higher levels of stress [ 21 ]. According to Lazarus (1999), individuals differ in their perception of stress if the stress response is viewed as the interaction between the environment and humans [ 22 ]. An Individual can experience two kinds of evaluation processes, one to appraise the external stressors and personal stake, and the other one to appraise personal resources that can be used to cope with stressors [ 22 , 23 ]. If there is an imbalance between these two evaluation processes, then stress occurs, because the personal resources are not enough to cope with the stressor’s demands [ 23 ].

During stressful life events, it is important to pay attention to the increasing levels of health anxiety and to the kind of coping mechanisms that are potential factors to mitigate the effects of high anxiety. The transactional model of stress by Lazarus and Folkman (1987) provides an insight into these kinds of factors [ 24 ]. Lazarus and Folkman theorized two types of coping responses: emotion-focused coping, and problem-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping strategies (e.g., distancing, acceptance of responsibility, positive reappraisal) might be used when the source of stress is not embedded in the person’s control and these strategies aim to manage the individual’s emotional response to a threat. Also, emotion-focused coping strategies are directed at managing emotional distress [ 24 ]. On the other hand, problem-focused coping strategies (e.g., confrontive coping, seeking social support, planful problem-solving) help an individual to be able to endure and/or minimize the threat, targeting the causes of stress in practical ways [ 24 ]. It was also addressed that emotion-focused coping mechanisms were used more in situations appraised as requiring acceptance, whereas problem-focused forms of coping were used more in encounters assessed as changeable [ 24 ].

A recent study in Hunan province in China found that the most effective factor in coping with stress among medical staff was the knowledge of their family’s well-being [ 25 ]. Although there have been several studies about the mental health of hospital workers during the COVID-19 pandemic or other epidemics (e.g., SARS, MERS) [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ], only a few studies from recent literature assessed the general population’s coping strategies. According to Gerhold (2020) [ 30 ], older people perceived a lower risk of COVID-19 than younger people. Also, women have expressed more worries about the disease than men did. Coping strategies were highly problem-focused and most of the participants reported that they listen to professionals’ advice and tried to remain calm [ 30 ]. In the same study, most responders perceived the COVID-19 pandemic as a global catastrophe that will severely affect a lot of people. On the other hand, they perceived the pandemic as a controllable risk that can be reduced. Dealing with macrosocial stressors takes faith in politics and in those people, who work with COVID-19 on the frontline.

Mental disorders are found prevalent among college students and their onset occurs mostly before entry to college [ 31 ]. The diagnosis and timely interventions at an early stage of illness are essential to improve psychosocial functioning and treatment outcomes [ 31 ]. According to research that was conducted at the University of Debrecen in Hungary a few years ago, the students were found to have high levels of stress and the rate of the participants with impacted mental health was alarming [ 32 ]. With an unprecedented stressful event like the COVID-19 crisis, changes to the mental health status of people, including students, are expected.

Aims of the study

In our present study, we aimed at assessing the levels of health anxiety, perceived stress, and coping styles among university students amidst the COVID-19 lockdown in Hungary, using three validated assessment tools for each domain.

Methods and materials

Study design and setting.

This study utilized a cross-sectional design, using online self-administered questionnaires that were created and designed in Google Forms® (A web-based survey tool). Data collection was carried out in the period April 30, 2020, and May 15, 2020, which represents one of the most stressful periods during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary when the official curfew/lockdown was declared along with the closure of dormitories and shifting to online remote teaching. The first cases of COVID-19 were declared in Hungary on March 4, 2020. On April 30, 2020, there were 2775 confirmed cases, 312 deaths, and 581 recoveries. As of May 15, 2020, the number of confirmed cases, deaths, and recovered persons was 3417, 442, and 1287, respectively.

Our study was conducted at the University of Debrecen, which is one of the largest higher education institutions in Hungary. The University is located in the city of Debrecen, the second-largest city in Hungary. Debrecen city is considered the educational and cultural hub of Eastern Hungary. As of October 2019, around 28,593 students were enrolled in various study programs at the University of Debrecen, of whom, 6,297 were international students [ 33 ]. The university offers various degree courses in Hungarian and English languages.

Study participants and sampling

The target population of our study was students at the University of Debrecen. Students were approached through social media platforms (e.g., Facebook®) and the official student administration system at the University of Debrecen (Neptun). The invitation link to our survey was sent to students on the web-based platforms described earlier. By using the Neptun system, we theoretically assumed that our survey questionnaire has reached all students at the University. The students who were interested and willing to participate in the study could fill out our questionnaire anonymously during the determined study period; thus, employing a convenience sampling approach. All students at the University of Debrecen whose age was 18 years or older and who were in Hungary during the outbreak had the eligibility to participate in our study whether undergraduates or postgraduates.

Study instruments

In our present study, the survey has solicited information about the sociodemographic profile of participants including age (in years), gender (female vs male), study program (health-related vs non-health related), and whether the student stayed in Hungary or traveled abroad during the period of conducting our survey in the outbreak. Our survey has also adopted three international scales to collect data about health anxiety, coping styles, and perceived stress during the pandemic crisis. As the language of instruction for international students at the University of Debrecen is English, and English fluency is one of the criteria for international students’ admission at the University of Debrecen, the international students were asked to fill out the English version of the survey and the scales. On the other hand, the Hungarian students were asked to fill out the Hungarian version of the survey and the validated Hungarian scales. Also, we provided contact information for psychological support when needed. Students who felt that they needed some help and psychological counseling could use the contact information of our peer supporters. Four International students have used this opportunity and were referred to a higher level of care. The original scales and their validated Hungarian versions are described in the following sections.

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)

The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) measures the level of stress in the general population who have at least completed a junior high school [ 34 ]. In the PSS, the respondents had to report how often certain things occurred like nervousness; loss of control; feeling of upset; piling up difficulties that cannot be handled; or on the contrary how often the students felt they were able to handle situations; and were on top of things. For the International students, we used the 10-item PSS (English version). The statements’ responses were scored on a 5-point Likert scale (from 0 = never to 4 = very often) as per the scale’s guide. Also, in the 10-item PSS, four positive items were reversely scored (e.g. felt confident about someone’s ability to handle personal problems) [ 34 ]. The PSS has satisfactory psychometric properties with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.78, and this English version was used for international students in our study.

For the Hungarian students, we used the Hungarian version of the PSS, which has 14 statements that cover the same aspects of stress described earlier. In this version of the PSS, the responses were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale (0–4) to mark how typical a particular behavior was for a respondent in the last month [ 35 ]. The Hungarian version of the PSS was psychometrically validated in 2006. In the validation study, the Hungarian 14-item PSS has shown satisfactory internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.88 [ 35 ].

Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ)

The second scale we used was the 26-Item Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) which was developed by Sørlie and Sexton [ 36 ]. For the international students, we used the validated English version of the 26-Item WCQ that distinguished five different factors, including Wishful thinking (hoped for a miracle, day-dreamed for a better time), Goal-oriented (tried to analyze the problem, concentrated on what to do), Seeking support (talked to someone, got professional help), Thinking it over (drew on past experiences, realized other solutions), and Avoidance (refused to think about it, minimized seriousness of it). The WCQ examined how often the respondents used certain coping mechanisms, eg: hoped for a miracle, fantasized, prepared for the worst, analyzed the problem, talked to someone, or on the opposite did not talk to anyone, drew conclusions from past things, came up with several solutions for a problem or contained their feelings. As per the 26-item WCQ, responses were scored on a 4-point Likert scale (from 0 = “does not apply and/or not used” to 3 = “used a great deal”). This scale has satisfactory psychometric properties with Cronbach's alpha for the factors ranged from 0.74 to 0.81[ 36 ].

For the Hungarian students, we used the Hungarian 16-Item WCQ, which was validated in 2008 [ 37 ]. In the Hungarian WCQ, four dimensions were identified, which were cognitive restructuring/adaptation (every cloud has a silver lining), Stress reduction (by eating; drinking; smoking), Problem analysis (I tried to analyze the problem), and Helplessness/Passive coping (I prayed; used drugs) [ 37 ]. The Cronbach’s alpha values for the Hungarian WCQ’s dimensions were in the range of 0.30–0.74 [ 37 ].

Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI)

The third scale adopted was the 18-Items Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI). Overall, the SHAI has two subscales. The first subscale comprised of 14 items that examined to what degree the respondents were worried about their health in the past six months; how often they noticed physical pain/ache or sensations; how worried they were about a serious illness; how much they felt at risk for a serious illness; how much attention was drawn to bodily sensations; what their environment said, how much they deal with their health. The second subscale of SHAI comprised of 4 items (negative consequences if the illness occurs) that enquired how the respondents would feel if they were diagnosed with a serious illness, whether they would be able to enjoy things; would they trust modern medicine to heal them; how many aspects of their life it would affect; how much they could preserve their dignity despite the illness [ 38 ]. One of four possible statements (scored from 0 to 3) must be chosen. Alberts et al. (2013) [ 39 ] found the mean SHAI value to be 12.41 (± 6.81) in a non-clinical sample. The original 18-item SHAI has Cronbach’s alpha values in the range of 0.74–0.96 [ 39 ]. For the Hungarian students, the Hungarian version of the SHAI was used. The Hungarian version of SHAI was validated in 2011 [ 40 ]. The scoring differs from the English version in that the four statements were scored from 1 to 4, but the statements themselves were the same. In the Hungarian validation study, it was found that the SHAI mean score in a non-clinical sample (university students) was 33.02 points (± 6.28) and the Cronbach's alpha of the test was 0.83 [ 40 ].

Data analyses

Data were extracted from Google Forms® as an Excel sheet for quality check and coding then we used SPSS® (v.25) and RStudio statistical software packages to analyze the data. Descriptive and summary statistics were presented as appropriate. To assess the difference between groups/categories of anxiety, stress, and coping styles, we used the non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test, since the variables did not have a normal distribution and for post hoc tests, we used the Mann–Whitney test. Also, we used Spearman’s rank correlation to assess the relationship between health anxiety and perceived stress within the international group and the Hungarian group. Comparison between international and domestic groups and different genders in terms of health anxiety and perceived stress levels were also conducted using the Mann–Whitney test. Binary logistic regression analysis was also employed to examine the associations between different coping styles/ strategies (treated as independent variables) and both, health anxiety level and perceived stress level (treated as outcome variables) using median splits. A p-value less than 5% was implemented for statistical significance.

Ethical considerations

Ethical permission was obtained from the Hungarian Ethical Review Committee for Research in Psychology (Reference number: 2020-45). All methods were carried out following the institutional guidelines and conforming to the ethical standards of the declaration of Helsinki. All participants were informed about the study and written informed consent was obtained before completing the survey. There were no rewards/incentives for completing the survey.

Sociodemographic characteristics of respondents

A total of 1320 students have responded to our survey. Six responses were eliminated due to incompleteness and an additional 25 responses were also excluded as the students filled out the survey from abroad (International students who were outside Hungary during the period of conducting our study). After exclusion of the described non-eligible responses (a total of 31 responses), the remaining 1289 valid responses were included in our analysis. Out of 1289 participants (100%), 73.5% were Hungarian students and around 26.5% were international students. Overall, female students have predominated the sample (n = 920, 71.4%). The median age (Interquartile range) among Hungarian students was 22 years (5) and for the international students was 22 years (4). Out of the total sample, most of the Hungarian students were enrolled in non-health-related programs (n = 690, 53.5%), while most of the international students were enrolled in health-related programs (n = 213, 16.5%). Table 1 demonstrates the sociodemographic profile of participants (Hungarian vs International).

Perceived stress, anxiety, and coping styles

For greater clarity of statistical analysis and interpretation, we created preferences regarding coping mechanisms. That is, we made the categories based on which coping factor (in the international sample) or dimension (in the Hungarian sample) the given person reached the highest scores, so it can be said that it is the person's preferred coping strategy. The four coping strategies among international students were goal-oriented, thinking it over, wishful thinking, and avoidance, while among the Hungarian students were cognitive restructuring, problem analysis, stress reduction, and passive coping.

The 26-item WCQ [ 31 ] contains a seeking support subscale which is missing from the Hungarian 16-item WCQ [ 32 ]; therefore, the seeking support subscale was excluded from our analysis. Moreover, because the PSS contained a different number of items in English and Hungarian versions (10 items vs 14 items), we looked at the average score of the answers so that we could compare international and domestic students.

In the evaluation of SHAI, the scoring of the two questionnaires are different. For the sake of comparability between the two samples, the international points were corrected to the Hungarian, adding plus one to the value of each answer. This may be the reason why we obtained higher results compared to international standards.

Among the international students, the mean score (± standard deviation) of perceived stress among male students was 2.11(± 0.86) compared to female students 2.51 (± 0.78), while the mean score (± standard deviation) of health anxiety was 34.12 (± 7.88) and 36.31 (± 7.75) among males and females, respectively. Table 2 shows more details regarding the perceived stress scores and health anxiety scores stratified by coping strategies among international students.

In the Hungarian sample, the mean score (± standard deviation) of perceived stress among male students was 2.06 (± 0.84) compared to female students 2.18 (± 0.83), while the mean score (± standard deviation) of health anxiety was 33.40 (± 7.63) and 35.05 (± 7.39) among males and females, respectively. Table 3 shows more details regarding the perceived stress scores and health anxiety scores stratified by coping strategies among Hungarian students.

Concerning coping styles among international students, the statements with the highest-ranked responses were “wished the situation would go away or somehow be finished” and “Had fantasies or wishes about how things might turn out” and both fall into the wishful thinking coping. Among the Hungarian students, the statements with the highest-ranked responses were “I tried to analyze the problem to understand better” (falls into problem analysis coping) and “I thought every cloud has a silver lining, I tried to perceive things cheerfully” (falls into cognitive restructuring coping).

On the other hand, the statements with the least-ranked responses among the international students belonged to the Avoidance coping. Among the Hungarians, it was Passive coping “I tried to take sedatives or medications” and Stress reduction “I staked everything upon a single cast, I started to do something risky” to have the lowest-ranked responses. Table 4 shows a comparison of different coping strategies among international and Hungarian students.

To test the difference between coping strategies, we used the non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test, since the variables did not have a normal distribution. For post hoc tests, we used Mann–Whitney tests with lowered significance levels ( p  = 0.0083). Among Hungarian students, there were significant differences between the groups in stress ( χ 2 (3) = 212.01; p < 0.001) and health anxiety ( χ 2 (3) = 80.32; p  < 0.001). In the post hoc tests, there were significant differences everywhere ( p  < 0.001) except between stress reduction and passive coping ( p  = 0.089) and between problem analysis and passive coping ( p  = 0.034). Considering the health anxiety, the results were very similar. There were significant differences between all groups ( p  < 0.001), except between stress reduction and passive coping ( p  = 0.347) and between problem analysis and passive coping ( p  = 0.205). See Figs.  1 and 2 for the Hungarian students.

Perceived stress differences between coping strategies among the Hungarian students

Health anxiety differences between coping strategies among the Hungarian students

Among the international students, the results were similar. According to the Kruskal–Wallis test, there were significant differences in stress ( χ 2 (3) = 73.26; p  < 0.001) and health anxiety ( χ 2 (3) = 42.60; p  < 0.001) between various coping strategies. The post hoc tests showed that there were differences between the perceived stress level and coping strategies everywhere ( p  < 0.005) except and between avoidance and thinking it over ( p  = 0.640). Concerning health anxiety, there were significant differences between wishful thinking and goal-oriented ( p  < 0.001), between wishful thinking and avoidance ( p  = 0.001), and between goal-oriented and avoidance ( p  = 0.285). There were no significant differences between wishful thinking and thinking it over ( p  = 0.069), between goal-oriented and thinking it over ( p  = 0.069), and between avoidance and thinking it over ( p  = 0.131). See Figs.  3 and 4 .

Perceived stress differences between coping strategies among the international students

Health anxiety differences between coping strategies among the international students

The relationship between coping strategies with health anxiety and perceived stress levels among the international students

We applied logistic regression analyses for the variables to see which of the coping strategies has a significant effect on SHAI and PSS results. In the first model (model a), with the health anxiety as an outcome dummy variable (with median split; median: 35), only two coping strategies had a statistically significant relationship with health anxiety level, including wishful thinking (as a risk factor) and goal-oriented (as a protective factor).

In the second model (model b), with the perceived stress as an outcome dummy variable (with median split; median: 2.40), three coping strategies were found to have a statistically significant association with the level of perceived stress, including wishful thinking (as a risk factor), while goal-oriented and thinking it over as protective factors. See Table 5 .

The relationship between coping strategies with health anxiety and perceived stress levels among domestic students

By employing logistic regression analysis, with the health anxiety as an outcome dummy variable (with median split; median: 33.5) (model a), three coping strategies had a statistically significant relationship with health anxiety level among domestic students, including stress reduction and problem analysis (as risk factors), while cognitive restructuring (as a protective factor).

Similarly, with the perceived stress as an outcome dummy variable (with median split; median: 2.1429) (model b), three coping strategies had a statistically significant relationship with perceived stress level, including stress reduction and problem analysis (as risk factors), while cognitive restructuring (as a protective factor). See Table 6 .

Comparisons between domestic and international students

We compared health anxiety and perceived stress levels of the Hungarian and international students’ groups using the Mann–Whitney test. In the case of health anxiety, the results showed that there were significant differences between the two groups ( W  = 149,431; p  = 0.038) and international students’ levels were higher. Also, there was a significant difference in the perceived stress level between the two groups ( W  = 141,024; p  < 0.001), and the international students have increased stress levels compared to the Hungarian ones.

Comparisons between genders within students’ groups (International vs Hungarian)

Firstly, we compared the international men’s and women’s health anxiety and stress levels using the Mann–Whitney test. The results showed that the international women’s health anxiety ( W  = 11,810; p  = 0.012) and perceived stress ( W  = 10,371; p  < 0.001) levels were both significantly higher than international men’s values. However, in the Hungarian sample, women’s health anxiety was significantly higher than men’s ( W  = 69,643; p  < 0.001), but there was no significant difference in perceived stress levels among between Hungarian women and men ( W  = 75,644.5; p  = 0.064).

Relationship between health anxiety and perceived stress

We correlated the general health anxiety and perceived stress using Spearman’s rank correlation. There was a significant moderate positive relationship between the two variables ( p  < 0.001; ρ  = 0.446). Within the Hungarian students, there was a significant correlation between health anxiety and perceived stress ( p  < 0.001; ρ  = 0.433), similarly among international students as well ( p  < 0.001; ρ  = 0.465).

In our study, we found that individuals who were characterized by a preference for certain coping strategies reported significantly higher perceived stress and/or health anxiety than those who used other coping methods. These correlations can be found in both the Hungarian and international students. In the light of our results, we can say that 48.4% of the international students used wishful thinking as their preferred coping method while around 43% of the Hungarian students used primarily cognitive restructuring to overcome their problems.

Regulation of emotion refers to “the processes whereby individuals monitor, evaluate, and modify their emotions in an effort to control which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express those emotions” [ 41 ]. There is an overlap between emotion-focused coping and emotion regulation strategies, but there are also differences. The overlap between the two concepts can be noticed in the fact that emotion-focused coping strategies have an emotional regulatory role, and emotion regulation strategies may “tax the individual’s resources” as the emotion-focused coping strategies do [ 23 , 42 ]. However, in emotion-focused coping strategies, non-emotional tools can also be used to achieve non-emotional goals, while emotion regulation strategies may be used for maintaining or reinforcing positive emotions [ 42 ].

Based on the cognitive-behavioral model of health anxiety, emotion-regulating strategies can regulate the physiological, cognitive, and behavioral consequences of a fear response to some degree, even when the person encounters the conditioned stimulus again [ 12 , 43 ]. In the long run, regular use of these dysfunctional emotion control strategies may manifest as functional impairment, which may be associated with anxiety disorders. A detailed study that examined health anxiety in the view of the cognitive-behavioral model found that, regardless of the effect of depression, there are significant and consistent correlations between certain dimensions of health anxiety and dysfunctional coping and emotional regulation strategies [ 12 ].

Similar to our current study, other studies have found that health anxiety was positively correlated with maladaptive emotion regulation and negatively with adaptive emotion regulation [ 44 ], and in the case of state anxiety that emotion-focused coping strategies proved to be less effective in reducing stress, while active coping leads to a sense of subjective well-being [ 17 , 27 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]

SHAI values were found to be high in other studies during the pandemic, and the SHAI results of the international students in our study were found to be even slightly higher compared to those studies [ 44 , 48 ]. Besides, anxiety values for women were found to be higher than for men in several studies [ 44 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. This was similar to what we found among the international students but not among the Hungarian ones. We can speculate that the ability to contact someone, the closeness of family and beloved ones, familiarity with the living environment, and maybe less online search about the coronavirus news could be factors counting towards that finding among Hungarian students. Also, most international students were enrolled in health-related study programs and his might have affected how they perceived stress/anxiety and their preferred coping strategies as well. Literature found that students of medical disciplines could have obstacles in achieving a healthy coping strategy to deal with stress and anxiety despite their profound medical knowledge compared to non-health-related students [ 51 , 52 ]. Literature also stressed the immense need for training programs to help students of medical disciplines in adopting coping skills and stress-reducing strategies [ 51 ].

The findings of our study may be a starting point for the exploration of the linkage between perceived stress, health anxiety, and coping strategies when people are not in their domestic context. People who are away from their home and friends in a relatively alien environment may tend to use coping mechanisms other than the adequate ones, which in turn can lead to increased levels of perceived stress.

Furthermore, our results seem to support the knowledge that deep-rooted health anxiety is difficult to change because it is closely related to certain coping mechanisms. It was also addressed in the literature that personality traits may have a significant influence on the coping strategy used by a person [ 53 ], revealing sophisticated and challenging links to be considered especially during training programs on effective coping and management skills. On the other hand, perceived stress which has risen significantly above the average level in the current pandemic, can be most effectively targeted by the well-formulated recommendations and advice of major international health organizations if people successfully adhere to them (e.g. physical activity; proper and adequate sleep; healthy eating; avoiding alcohol; meditation; caring for others; relationships maintenance, and using credible information resources about the pandemic, etc.) [ 1 , 54 ]. Furthermore, there may be additional positive effects of these recommendations when published in different languages or languages that are spoken by a wide range of nationalities. Besides, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, some of which are available online during the current pandemic crisis, can further reduce anxiety. Also, if someone does not feel safe or fear prevails, there are helplines to get in touch with professionals, and this applies to the University of Debrecen in Hungary, and to a certain extent internationally.

Naturally, our study had certain limitations that should be acknowledged and considered. The temporality of events could not be assessed as we employed a cross-sectional study design, that is, we did not have information on the previous conditions of the participants which means that it is possible that some of these conditions existed in the past, while others de facto occurred with COVID-19 crisis. The survey questionnaires were completed by those who felt interested and involved, i.e., a convenience sampling technique was used, this impairs the representativeness of the sample (in terms of sociodemographic variables) and the generalizability of our results. Also, the type of recruitment (including social media) as well as the online nature of the study, probably appealed more to people with an affinity with this kind of instrument. Besides, each questionnaire represented self-reported states; thus, over-reporting or under-reporting could be present. It is also important to note that international students were answering the survey questionnaire in a language that might not have been their mother language. Nevertheless, English fluency is a prerequisite to enroll in a study program at the University of Debrecen for international students. As the options for gender were only male/female in our survey questionnaire, we might have missed the views of students who do not identify themselves according to these gender categories. Also, no data on medical history/current medical status were collected. Lastly, we had to make minor changes to the used scales in the different languages for comparability.

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has imposed a significant burden on the physical and psychological wellbeing of humans. Crises like the current pandemic can trigger unprecedented emotional and behavioral responses among individuals to adapt or cope with the situation. The elevated perceived stress levels during major life events can be further deepened by disengagement from home and by using inadequate coping strategies. By following and adhering to the international recommendations, adopting proper coping strategies, and equipping oneself with the required coping and stress management skills, the associated high levels of perceived stress and anxiety might be mitigated.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to compliance with institutional guidelines but they are available from the corresponding author (LRK) on a reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Coronavirus Disease 2019

Perceived Stress Scale

Short Health Anxiety Inventory

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

Ways of Coping Questionnaire

World Health Organization

World Health Organization. Advice for the public on COVID-19. [Online]. 2020. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public . Accessed 9 Sep 2020.

National Center for Public Health. Opportunities to reduce contact numbers—Community events in relation to COVID-19 virus infection. [Online]. 2020. https://www.nnk.gov.hu/index.php/koronavirus-tajekoztato/549-opportunities-to-reduce-contact-numbers-community-events-in-relation-to-covid-19-virus-infection . Accessed 20 Sep 2020.

GardaWorld. Crisis24 News Alert. [Online]. 2020. https://www.garda.com/crisis24/news-alerts?search_api_fulltext=&na_countries%5B%5D=1431&field_news_alert_categories=All&field_news_alert_crit=All&items_per_page=20 . Accessed 20 Sep 2020.

Tanne JH, Hayasaki E, Zastrow M, Pulla P, Smith P, Rada AG. Covid-19: how doctors and healthcare systems are tackling coronavirus worldwide. Br Med J. 2020;368:m1090.

Article   Google Scholar  

Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O’Neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, et al. World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Int J Surg. 2020;76:71–6.

Rosenbaum L. Facing Covid-19 in Italy—ethics, logistics, and therapeutics on the epidemic’s front line. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:1873–5. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2005492 .

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Wang C, Pan R, Wan X, Tan Y, Xu L, Ho CS, et al. Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) epidemic among the general population in China. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17:1729.

Akour A, Al-Tammemi AB, Barakat M, Kanj R, Fakhouri HN, Malkawi A, et al. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency distance teaching on the psychological status of university teachers: a cross-sectional study in Jordan. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2020;103:2391–9.

Al-Tammemi AB, Akour A, Alfalah L. Is it just about physical health? An online cross-sectional study exploring the psychological distress among university students in Jordan in the Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic. Front Psychol. 2020;11:562213.

Roddenberry A, Renk K. Locus of control and self-efficacy: potential mediators of stress, illness, and utilization of health services in college students. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2010;41:353–70.

Racic M, Todorovic R, Ivkovic N, Masic S, Joksimovic B, Kulic M. Self- perceived stress in relation to anxiety, depression and health-related quality of life among health professions students: a cross-sectional study from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Slov J Public Heal. 2017;56:251–9.

Görgen SM, Hiller W, Witthöft M. Health anxiety, cognitive coping, and emotion regulation: a latent variable approach. Int J Behav Med. 2014;21:364–74.

Abramowitz JS, Braddock A. Psychological treatment of health anxiety and hypochondriasis: a biopsychosocial approach. Boston: Hogrefe Publishing; 2008.

Google Scholar  

Taylor S, Asmundson GJG. Treating health anxiety: a cognitive-behavioral approach. 1st ed. New York: Guilford Press; 2004.

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,(DSM-5). 5th edition. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2013.

Wheaton MG, Abramowitz JS, Berman NC, Fabricant LE, Olatunji BO. Psychological predictors of anxiety in response to the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic. Cognit Ther Res. 2012;36:210–8.

Asmundson GJG, Taylor S. How health anxiety influences responses to viral outbreaks like COVID-19: What all decision-makers, health authorities, and health care professionals need to know. J Anxiety Disord. 2020;71:102211.

Taha SA, Matheson K, Anisman H. The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic: the role of threat, coping, and media trust on vaccination intentions in Canada. J Health Commun. 2013;18:278–90.

Phua DH, Tang HK, Tham KY. Coping responses of emergency physicians and nurses to the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak. Acad Emerg. 2005;12:322–8.

Teasdale E, Yardley L, Schlotz W, Michie S. The importance of coping appraisal in behavioural responses to pandemic flu. Br J Health Psychol. 2012;17:44–59.

Sim K, Huak Chan Y, Chong PN, Chua HC, Wen SS. Psychosocial and coping responses within the community health care setting towards a national outbreak of an infectious disease. J Psychosom Res. 2010;68:195–202.

Lazarus RS. Stress and emotion: a new synthesis. London: Free Association Books; 1999.

Lazarus RS, Folkman S. Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer; 1984.

Lazarus RS, Folkman S. Transactional theory and research on emotions and coping. Eur J Pers. 1987;1:141–69.

Cai H, Tu B, Ma J, Chen L, Fu L, Jiang Y, et al. psychological impact and coping strategies of frontline medical staff in hunan between January and March 2020 during the Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Hubei. China Med Sci Monit. 2020;26:e924171.

PubMed   Google Scholar  

Chua SE, Cheung V, Cheung C, McAlonan GM, Wong JWS, Cheung EPT, et al. Psychological effects of the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong on high-risk health care workers. Can J Psychiatry. 2004;49:391–3. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674370404900609 .

Flesia L, Monaro M, Mazza C, Fietta V, Colicino E, Segatto B, et al. Predicting perceived stress related to the Covid-19 outbreak through stable psychological traits and machine learning models. J Clin Med. 2020;9:3350.

Khalid I, Khalid TJ, Qabajah MR, Barnard AG, Qushmaq IA. Healthcare workers emotions, perceived stressors and coping strategies during a MERS-CoV outbreak. Clin Med Res. 2016;14:7–14.

Gee S, Skovdal M. The role of risk perception in willingness to respond to the 2014–2016 West African Ebola outbreak: a qualitative study of international health care workers. Glob Heal Res Policy. 2017;2:21.

Gerhold L. COVID-19: Risk perception and Coping strategies. Results from a survey in Germany. PsyArXiv Prepr. 2020.

Auerbach RP, Alonso J, Axinn WG, Cuijpers P, Ebert DD, Green JG, et al. Mental disorders among college students in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Psychol Med. 2016;46:2955–70.

Bíró É. Studies on the mental health of students in higher education. University of Debrecen; 2014. https://dea.lib.unideb.hu/dea/handle/2437/195979 . Accessed 15 Feb 2021.

The University of Debrecen. Facts and Figures. [Online]. 2020. https://www.edu.unideb.hu/page.php?id=28 . Accessed 25 Dec 2020.

Cohen S. Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In: The social psychology of health. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc; 1988. p. 31–67.

Strauder A, Thege BK. Az Észlelt Stressz Kérdőív (PSS) Magyar Verziójának Jellemzői. Mentálhigiéné És Pszichoszomatika. 2006;7:203–16.

Sørlie T, Sexton HC. The factor structure of “The Ways of Coping Questionnaire” and the process of coping in surgical patients. Pers Individ Dif. 2001;30:961–75.

Rózsa S, Purebl G, Susánszky É, Kő N, Szádóczky E, Réthelyi J, et al. Dimensions of coping: Hungarian adaptation of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. Mentálhigiéné És Pszichoszomatika. 2008; 217–241.

Salkovskis PM, Rimes KA, Warwick HMC. The Health Anxiety Inventory: development and validation of scales for the measurement of health anxiety and hypochondriasis. Psychol Med. 2002;32:843.

Alberts NM, Hadjistavropoulos HD, Jones SL, Sharpe D. The Short Health Anxiety Inventory: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Anxiety Disord. 2013;27:68–78.

Köteles F, Simor P, Bárdos G. Validation and psychometric evaluation of the Hungarian version of the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI). Mentálhigiéné és Pszichoszomatika. 2011;12:191–213.

Artino AR. Regulation of Emotion. In: Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2011. p. 1236–8.

Gross JJ. The emerging field of emotion regulation: an integrative review. Rev Gen Psychol. 1998;2:271–99.

Kaczkurkin AN, Foa EB. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders: an update on the empirical evidence. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2015;17:337–46.

Jungmann SM, Witthöft M. Health anxiety, cyberchondria, and coping in the current COVID-19 pandemic: Which factors are related to coronavirus anxiety? J Anxiety Disord. 2020;73:102239.

Taha S, Matheson K, Cronin T, Anisman H. Intolerance of uncertainty, appraisals, coping, and anxiety: the case of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Br J Health Psychol. 2014;19:592–605.

Umucu E, Lee B. Examining the impact of COVID-19 on stress and coping strategies in individuals with disabilities and chronic conditions. Rehabil Psychol. 2020;65:193–8.

Main A, Zhou Q, Ma Y, Luecken LJ, Liu X. Relations of SARS-related stressors and coping to Chinese college students’ psychological adjustment during the 2003 Beijing SARS epidemic. J Couns Psychol. 2011;58:410–23.

Özdin S, Bayrak ÖŞ. Levels and predictors of anxiety, depression and health anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic in Turkish society: the importance of gender. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2020;66:504–11.

Taylor S, Landry CA, Paluszek MM, Fergus TA, McKay D, Asmundson GJG. COVID stress syndrome: concept, structure, and correlates. Depress Anxiety. 2020;37:706–14.

Gamonal Limcaoco RS, Mateos EM, Fernández JM, Roncero C. Anxiety, worry and perceived stress in the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, March 2020. Preliminary results. MedRxiv Prepr. 2020.

Abouammoh N, Irfan F, AlFaris E. Stress coping strategies among medical students and trainees in Saudi Arabia: a qualitative study. BMC Med Educ. 2020;20:124.

Gade S, Chari S, Gupta M. Perceived stress among medical students: to identify its sources and coping strategies. Arch Med Health Sci. 2014;2:80–6.

Leszko M, Iwański R, Jarzębińska A. The relationship between personality traits and coping styles among first-time and recurrent prisoners in Poland. Front Psychol. 2020;10:2969.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mental Health and Coping During COVID-19 Pandemic. [Online]. 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html . Accessed 9 Sep 2020.

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to provide our extreme thanks and appreciation to all students who participated in our study. ABA is currently supported by the Tempus Public Foundation’s scholarship at the University of Debrecen.

This research project did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Doctoral School of Health Sciences, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

Szabolcs Garbóczy, Szilvia Harsányi, Ala’a B. Al-Tammemi & László Róbert Kolozsvári

Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

Szabolcs Garbóczy

Department of Personality and Clinical Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

Anita Szemán-Nagy

Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

Mohamed S. Ahmad & Viktor Rekenyi

Department of Social and Work Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

Dorottya Ocsenás

Doctoral School of Human Sciences, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

Department of Family and Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Móricz Zs. krt. 22, Debrecen, 4032, Hungary

Ala’a B. Al-Tammemi & László Róbert Kolozsvári

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors SG, ASN, MSA, SH, DO, VR, ABA, and LRK have worked on the study design, text writing, revising, and editing of the manuscript. DO, SG, and VR have done data management and extraction, data analysis. Drafting and interpretation of the manuscript were made in close collaboration by all authors SG, ASN, MSA, SH, DO, VR, ABA, and LRK. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to László Róbert Kolozsvári .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

Ethical permission was obtained from the Hungarian Ethical Review Committee for Research in Psychology (Reference number: 2020-45). All methods were carried out following the institutional guidelines and conforming to the ethical standards of the declaration of Helsinki. All participants were informed about the study and written informed consent was obtained before completing the survey.

Consent for publication

Not Applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Garbóczy, S., Szemán-Nagy, A., Ahmad, M.S. et al. Health anxiety, perceived stress, and coping styles in the shadow of the COVID-19. BMC Psychol 9 , 53 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00560-3

Download citation

Received : 07 January 2021

Accepted : 26 March 2021

Published : 06 April 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00560-3

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Health anxiety
• Perceived stress
• Coping styles
• University students

BMC Psychology

ISSN: 2050-7283

• General enquiries: [email protected]

Recent developments in stress and anxiety research

• Published: 01 September 2021
• Volume 128 , pages 1265–1267, ( 2021 )

Cite this article

• Urs M. Nater 1 , 2  

6155 Accesses

2 Citations

Explore all metrics

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Stress and anxiety are virtually omnipresent in today´s society, pervading almost all aspects of our daily lives. While each and every one of us experiences “stress” and/or “anxiety” at least to some extent at times, the phenomena themselves are far from being completely understood. In stress research, scientists are particularly grappling with the conceptual issue of how to define stress, also with regard to delimiting stress from anxiety or negative affectivity in general. Interestingly, there is no unified theory of stress, despite many attempts at defining stress and its characteristics. Consequently, the available literature relies on a variety of different theoretical approaches, though the theories of Lazarus and Folkman ( 1984 ) or McEwen ( 1998 ) are relatively pervasive in the literature. One key issue in conceptualizing stress is that research has not always differentiated between the perception of a stimulus or a situation as a stressor and the subsequent biobehavioral response (often called the “stress response”). This is important, since, for example, psychological factors such as uncontrollability and social evaluation, i.e. factors that may influence how an individual perceives a potentially stressful stimulus or situation, have been identified as characteristics that elicit particularly powerful physiological stressful responses (Dickerson and Kemeny 2004 ). At the core of the physiological stress response is a complex physiological system, which is located in both the central nervous system (CNS) and the body´s periphery. The complexity of this system necessitates a multi-dimensional assessment approach involving variables that adequately reflect all relevant components. It is also important to consider that the experience of stress and its psychobiological correlates do not occur in a vacuum, but are being shaped by numerous contextual factors (e.g. societal and cultural context, work and leisure time, family and dyadic systems, environmental variables, physical fitness, nutritional status, etc.) and dispositional factors (e.g. genetics, personality, resilience, regulatory capacities, self-efficacy, etc.). Thus, a theoretical framework needs to incorporate these factors. In sum, as stress is considered a multi-faceted and inherently multi-dimensional construct, its conceptualization and operationalization needs to reflect this (Nater 2018 ).

The goal of the World Association for Stress Related and Anxiety Disorders (WASAD) is to promote and make available basic and clinical research on stress-related and anxiety disorders. Coinciding with WASAD’s 3rd International Congress held in September 2021 in Vienna, Austria, this journal publishes a Special Issue encompassing state-of-the art research in the field of stress and anxiety. This special issue collects answers to a number of important questions that need to be addressed in current and future research. Among the most relevant issues are (1) the multi-dimensional assessment that arises as a consequence of a multi-faceted consideration of stress and anxiety, with a particular focus on doing so under ecologically valid conditions. Skoluda et al. 2021 (in this issue) argue that hair as an important source of the stress hormone cortisol should not only be taken as a complementary stress biomarker by research staff, but that lay persons could be also trained to collect hair at the study participants’ homes, thus increasing the ecological validity of studies incorporating this important measure; (2) the incongruence between psychological and biological facets of stress and anxiety that has been observed both in laboratory and field research (Campbell and Ehlert 2012 ). Interestingly, there are behavioral constructs that do show relatively high congruence. As shown in the paper of Vatheuer et al. ( 2021 ), gaze behavior while exposed to an acute social stressor correlates with salivary cortisol, thus indicating common underlying mechanisms; (3) the complex dynamics of stress-related measures that may extend over shorter (seconds to minutes), medium (hours and diurnal/circadian fluctuations), and longer (months, seasonal) time periods. In particular, momentary assessment studies are highly qualified to examine short to medium term fluctuations and interactions. In their study employing such a design, Stoffel and colleagues (Stoffel et al. 2021 ) show ecologically valid evidence for direct attenuating effects of social interactions on psychobiological stress. Using an experimental approach, on the other hand, Denk et al. ( 2021 ) examined the phenomenon of physiological synchrony between study participants; they found both cortisol and alpha-amylase physiological synchrony in participants who were in the same group while being exposed to a stressor. Importantly, these processes also unfold over time in relation to other biological systems; al’Absi and colleagues showed in their study (al’Absi et al. 2021 ) the critical role of the endogenous opioid system and its relation to stress-related analgesia; (4) the influence of contextual and dispositional factors on the biological stress response in various target samples (e.g., humans, animals, minorities, children, employees, etc.) both under controlled laboratory conditions and in everyday life environments. In this issue, Sattler and colleagues show evidence that contextual information may only matter to a certain extent, as in their study (Sattler et al. 2021 ), the biological response to a gay-specific social stressor was equally pronounced as the one to a general social stressor in gay men. Genetic information is probably the most widely researched dispositional factor; Kuhn et al. show in their paper (Kuhn et al. 2021 ) that the low expression variant of the serotonin transporter gene serves as a risk factor for increased stress reactivity, thus clearly indicating the important role of dispositional factors in stress processing. An interesting factor combining both aspects of dispositional and contextual information is maternal care; Bentele et al. ( 2021 ) in their study are able to show that there was an effect of maternal care on the amylase stress response, while no such effect was observed for cortisol. In a similar vein, Keijser et al. ( 2021 ) showed in their gene-environment interaction study that the effects of FKBP5, a gene very closely related to HPA axis regulation, and early life stress on depressive symptoms among young adults was moderated by a positive parenting style; and (5) the role of stress and anxiety as transdiagnostic factors in mental disorders, be it as an etiological factor, a variable contributing to symptom maintenance, or as a consequence of the condition itself. Stress, e.g., as a common denominator for a broad variety of psychiatric diagnoses has been extensively discussed, and stress as an etiological factor holds specific significance in the context of transdiagnostic approaches to the conceptualization and treatment of mental disorders (Wilamowska et al. 2010 ). The HPA axis, specifically, is widely known to be dysregulated in various conditions. Fischer et al. ( 2021 ) discuss in their comprehensive review the role of this important stress system in the context of patients with post-traumatic disorder. Specifically focusing on the cortisol awakening response, Rausch and colleagues provide evidence for HPA axis dysregulation in patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (Rausch et al. 2021 ). As part of a longitudinal project on ADHD, Szep et al. ( 2021 ) investigated the possible impact of child and maternal ADHD symptoms on mothers’ perceived chronic stress and hair cortisol concentration; although there was no direct association, the findings underline the importance of taking stress-related assessments into consideration in ADHD studies. As the HPA axis is closely interacting with the immune system, Rhein et al. ( 2021 ) examined in their study the predicting role of the cytokine IL-6 on psychotherapy outcome in patients with PTSD, indicating that high reactivity of IL-6 to a stressor at the beginning of the therapy was associated with a negative therapy outcome. The review of Kyunghee Kim et al. ( 2021 ) also demonstrated the critical role of immune pathways in the molecular changes due to antidepressant treatment. As for the therapy, the important role of cognitive-behavioral therapy with its key elements to address both stress and anxiety reduction have been shown in two studies in this special issue, evidencing its successful application in obsessive–compulsive disorder (Ivarsson et al. 2021 ; Hollmann et al. 2021 ). Thus, both stress and anxiety are crucial transdiagnostic factors in various mental disorders, and future research needs elaborate further on their role in etiology, maintenance, and treatment.

In conclusion, a number of important questions are being asked in stress and anxiety research, as has become evident above. The Special Issue on “Recent developments in stress and anxiety research” attempts to answer at least some of the raised questions, and I want to invite you to inspect the individual papers briefly introduced above in more detail.

al’Absi M, Nakajima M, Bruehl S (2021) Stress and pain: modality-specific opioid mediation of stress-induced analgesia. J Neural Transm. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02401-4

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Bentele UU, Meier M, Benz ABE, Denk BF, Dimitroff SJ, Pruessner JC, Unternaehrer E (2021) The impact of maternal care and blood glucose availability on the cortisol stress response in fasted women. J Neural Transm (Vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02350-y

Article   Google Scholar  

Campbell J, Ehlert U (2012) Acute psychosocial stress: does the emotional stress response correspond with physiological responses? Psychoneuroendocrinology 37(8):1111–1134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.12.010

Denk B, Dimitroff SJ, Meier M, Benz ABE, Bentele UU, Unternaehrer E, Popovic NF, Gaissmaier W, Pruessner JC (2021) Influence of stress on physiological synchrony in a stressful versus non-stressful group setting. J Neural Transm (Vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02384-2

Dickerson SS, Kemeny ME (2004) Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychol Bull 130(3):355–391

Fischer S, Schumacher T, Knaevelsrud C, Ehlert U, Schumacher S (2021) Genes and hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in post-traumatic stress disorder. What is their role in symptom expression and treatment response? J Neural Transm (vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02330-2

Hollmann K, Allgaier K, Hohnecker CS, Lautenbacher H, Bizu V, Nickola M, Wewetzer G, Wewetzer C, Ivarsson T, Skokauskas N, Wolters LH, Skarphedinsson G, Weidle B, de Haan E, Torp NC, Compton SN, Calvo R, Lera-Miguel S, Haigis A, Renner TJ, Conzelmann A (2021) Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy in children and adolescents with obsessive compulsive disorder: a feasibility study. J Neural Transm. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02409-w

Ivarsson T, Melin K, Carlsson A, Ljungberg M, Forssell-Aronsson E, Starck G, Skarphedinsson G (2021) Neurochemical properties measured by 1 H magnetic resonance spectroscopy may predict cognitive behaviour therapy outcome in paediatric OCD: a pilot study. J Neural Transm. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02407-y

Keijser R, Olofsdotter S, Nilsson WK, Åslund C (2021) Three-way interaction effects of early life stress, positive parenting and FKBP5 in the development of depressive symptoms in a general population. J Neural Transm. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02405-0

Kuhn L, Noack H, Skoluda N, Wagels L, Rohr AK, Schulte C, Eisenkolb S, Nieratschker V, Derntl B, Habel U (2021) The association of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and the response to different stressors in healthy males. J Neural Transm (Vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02390-4

Kyunghee Kim H, Zai G, Hennings J, Müller DJ, Kloiber S (2021) Changes in RNA expression levels during antidepressant treatment: a systematic review. J Neural Transm. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02394-0

Lazarus RS, Folkman S (1984) Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer Publisher Company Inc, New York

Google Scholar  

McEwen BS (1998) Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. N Engl J Med 338(3):171–179

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Nater UM (2018) The multidimensionality of stress and its assessment. Brain Behav Immun 73:159–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2018.07.018

Rausch J, Flach E, Panizza A, Brunner R, Herpertz SC, Kaess M, Bertsch K (2021) Associations between age and cortisol awakening response in patients with borderline personality disorder. J Neural Transm. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02402-3

Rhein C, Hepp T, Kraus O, von Majewski K, Lieb M, Rohleder N, Erim Y (2021) Interleukin-6 secretion upon acute psychosocial stress as a potential predictor of psychotherapy outcome in posttraumatic stress disorder. J Neural Transm (Vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02346-8

Sattler FA, Nater UM, Mewes R (2021) Gay men’s stress response to a general and a specific social stressor. J Neural Transm (Vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02380-6

Skoluda N, Piroth I, Gao W, Nater UM (2021) HOME vs. LAB hair samples for the determination of long-term steroid concentrations: a comparison between hair samples collected by laypersons and trained research staff. J Neural Transm (Vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02367-3

Stoffel M, Abbruzzese E, Rahn S, Bossmann U, Moessner M, Ditzen B (2021) Covariation of psychobiological stress regulation with valence and quantity of social interactions in everyday life: disentangling intra- and interindividual sources of variation. J Neural Transm (Vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02359-3

Szep A, Skoluda N, Schloss S, Becker K, Pauli-Pott U, Nater UM (2021) The impact of preschool child and maternal attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms on mothers’ perceived chronic stress and hair cortisol. J Neural Transm (Vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02377-1

Vatheuer CC, Vehlen A, von Dawans B, Domes G (2021) Gaze behavior is associated with the cortisol response to acute psychosocial stress in the virtual TSST. J Neural Transm (Vienna). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02344-w

Wilamowska ZA, Thompson-Hollands J, Fairholme CP, Ellard KK, Farchione TJ, Barlow DH (2010) Conceptual background, development, and preliminary data from the unified protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders. Depress Anxiety 27(10):882–890. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20735

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Urs M. Nater

University Research Platform ‘The Stress of Life – Processes and Mechanisms Underlying Everyday Life Stress’, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Urs M. Nater .

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Nater, U.M. Recent developments in stress and anxiety research. J Neural Transm 128 , 1265–1267 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02410-3

Download citation

Accepted : 13 August 2021

Published : 01 September 2021

Issue Date : September 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02410-3

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Research Topics & Ideas: Mental Health

100+ Mental Health Research Topic Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

If you’re just starting out exploring mental health topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of mental health-related research topics and ideas.

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Mental Health Topic Ideas

• Mood disorders
• Anxiety disorders
• Psychotic disorders
• Personality disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorders
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Eating disorders
• Substance-related disorders

Mood Disorders

Research in mood disorders can help understand their causes and improve treatment methods. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• The impact of genetics on the susceptibility to depression
• Efficacy of antidepressants vs. cognitive behavioural therapy
• The role of gut microbiota in mood regulation
• Cultural variations in the experience and diagnosis of bipolar disorder
• Seasonal Affective Disorder: Environmental factors and treatment
• The link between depression and chronic illnesses
• Exercise as an adjunct treatment for mood disorders
• Hormonal changes and mood swings in postpartum women
• Stigma around mood disorders in the workplace
• Suicidal tendencies among patients with severe mood disorders

Anxiety Disorders

Research topics in this category can potentially explore the triggers, coping mechanisms, or treatment efficacy for anxiety disorders.

• The relationship between social media and anxiety
• Exposure therapy effectiveness in treating phobias
• Generalised Anxiety Disorder in children: Early signs and interventions
• The role of mindfulness in treating anxiety
• Genetics and heritability of anxiety disorders
• The link between anxiety disorders and heart disease
• Anxiety prevalence in LGBTQ+ communities
• Caffeine consumption and its impact on anxiety levels
• The economic cost of untreated anxiety disorders
• Virtual Reality as a treatment method for anxiety disorders

Psychotic Disorders

Within this space, your research topic could potentially aim to investigate the underlying factors and treatment possibilities for psychotic disorders.

• Early signs and interventions in adolescent psychosis
• Brain imaging techniques for diagnosing psychotic disorders
• The efficacy of antipsychotic medication
• The role of family history in psychotic disorders
• Misdiagnosis and delayed treatment of psychotic disorders
• Co-morbidity of psychotic and mood disorders
• The relationship between substance abuse and psychotic disorders
• Art therapy as a treatment for schizophrenia
• Public perception and stigma around psychotic disorders
• Hospital vs. community-based care for psychotic disorders

Personality Disorders

Research topics within in this area could delve into the identification, management, and social implications of personality disorders.

• Long-term outcomes of borderline personality disorder
• Antisocial personality disorder and criminal behaviour
• The role of early life experiences in developing personality disorders
• Narcissistic personality disorder in corporate leaders
• Gender differences in personality disorders
• Diagnosis challenges for Cluster A personality disorders
• Emotional intelligence and its role in treating personality disorders
• Psychotherapy methods for treating personality disorders
• Personality disorders in the elderly population
• Stigma and misconceptions about personality disorders

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Within this space, research topics could focus on the causes, symptoms, or treatment of disorders like OCD and hoarding.

• OCD and its relationship with anxiety disorders
• Cognitive mechanisms behind hoarding behaviour
• Deep Brain Stimulation as a treatment for severe OCD
• The impact of OCD on academic performance in students
• Role of family and social networks in treating OCD
• Alternative treatments for hoarding disorder
• Childhood onset OCD: Diagnosis and treatment
• OCD and religious obsessions
• The impact of OCD on family dynamics
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Causes and treatment

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Research topics in this area could explore the triggers, symptoms, and treatments for PTSD. Here are some thought starters to get you moving.

• PTSD in military veterans: Coping mechanisms and treatment
• Childhood trauma and adult onset PTSD
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) efficacy
• Role of emotional support animals in treating PTSD
• Gender differences in PTSD occurrence and treatment
• Effectiveness of group therapy for PTSD patients
• PTSD and substance abuse: A dual diagnosis
• First responders and rates of PTSD
• Domestic violence as a cause of PTSD
• The neurobiology of PTSD

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

This category of mental health aims to better understand disorders like Autism and ADHD and their impact on day-to-day life.

• Early diagnosis and interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder
• ADHD medication and its impact on academic performance
• Parental coping strategies for children with neurodevelopmental disorders
• Autism and gender: Diagnosis disparities
• The role of diet in managing ADHD symptoms
• Neurodevelopmental disorders in the criminal justice system
• Genetic factors influencing Autism
• ADHD and its relationship with sleep disorders
• Educational adaptations for children with neurodevelopmental disorders
• Neurodevelopmental disorders and stigma in schools

Eating Disorders

Research topics within this space can explore the psychological, social, and biological aspects of eating disorders.

• The role of social media in promoting eating disorders
• Family dynamics and their impact on anorexia
• Biological basis of binge-eating disorder
• Treatment outcomes for bulimia nervosa
• Eating disorders in athletes
• Media portrayal of body image and its impact
• Eating disorders and gender: Are men underdiagnosed?
• Cultural variations in eating disorders
• The relationship between obesity and eating disorders
• Eating disorders in the LGBTQ+ community

Substance-Related Disorders

Research topics in this category can focus on addiction mechanisms, treatment options, and social implications.

• Efficacy of rehabilitation centres for alcohol addiction
• The role of genetics in substance abuse
• Substance abuse and its impact on family dynamics
• Prescription drug abuse among the elderly
• Legalisation of marijuana and its impact on substance abuse rates
• Alcoholism and its relationship with liver diseases
• Opioid crisis: Causes and solutions
• Substance abuse education in schools: Is it effective?
• Harm reduction strategies for drug abuse
• Co-occurring mental health disorders in substance abusers

Choosing A Research Topic

These research topic ideas we’ve covered here serve as thought starters to help you explore different areas within mental health. They are intentionally very broad and open-ended. By engaging with the currently literature in your field of interest, you’ll be able to narrow down your focus to a specific research gap .

It’s important to consider a variety of factors when choosing a topic for your dissertation or thesis . Think about the relevance of the topic, its feasibility , and the resources available to you, including time, data, and academic guidance. Also, consider your own interest and expertise in the subject, as this will sustain you through the research process.

Always consult with your academic advisor to ensure that your chosen topic aligns with academic requirements and offers a meaningful contribution to the field. If you need help choosing a topic, consider our private coaching service.

Good morning everyone. This are very patent topics for research in neuroscience. Thank you for guidance

What if everything is important, original and intresting? as in Neuroscience. I find myself overwhelmd with tens of relveant areas and within each area many optional topics. I ask myself if importance (for example – able to treat people suffering) is more relevant than what intrest me, and on the other hand if what advance me further in my career should not also be a consideration?

This information is really helpful and have learnt alot

Phd research topics on implementation of mental health policy in Nigeria :the prospects, challenges and way forward.

This info is indeed help for someone to formulate a dissertation topic. I have already got my path from here.

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Print Friendly

Here’s how you know

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• National Institutes of Health

Let’s Talk About Stress—and Stress Research

Director’s Page Helene M. Langevin, M.D.

July 26, 2022

Stress is a part of life for everyone, and when it comes in short bursts, it’s not necessarily bad. Our natural “fight-or-flight” response can help us mobilize our resources to meet a challenge. But when stress persists (chronic stress), it can lead to both mental and physical health problems. In fact, longstanding evidence from multiple areas of research demonstrates that chronic stress acts like a toxin, permeating our organs and cells and triggering a negative cascade on our hormones, sleep, muscles, metabolism, immune system, and inflammatory responses. And chronic systemic inflammation is emerging as a key factor underlying more than half of all deaths from chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and nonalcoholic fatty liver.

Chronic stress has long been a focus of research for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), and the interplay between the effects of stress on the mind and the body is an important area of research to me, personally. Many NCCIH-supported studies have looked at the potential role of complementary and integrative health interventions in helping people manage stress and its consequences. Let’s look at one area of research—the effect of stress management interventions on people who are living with a long-term health condition.

With funding from NCCIH, a group of researchers led by Dr. Lori Scott-Sheldon, who was then with The Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island, performed a series of systematic reviews on stress management for people with chronic diseases. The reviews looked at both psychological and physical effects of the interventions, and their findings were promising. For example:

• A review of studies on stress management interventions for adults with heart failure showed improvements in anxiety, depressive symptoms, quality of life, and exercise capacity in people who participated in these interventions. 
• A review on mindfulness-based interventions for people living with HIV/AIDS showed reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms and improved quality of life. 
• A review of the evidence on yoga interventions for people living with HIV/AIDS showed improvements in perceived stress, positive affect, and anxiety. 
• A review on mindfulness-based interventions for adults with cardiovascular disease showed improvements in anxiety, depression, distress, perceived stress, and systolic blood pressure. 
• And finally, a review of yoga interventions for people with type 2 diabetes linked participation in yoga with improvements in measures of glycemic control (HbA1c and both fasting and postprandial [after eating] blood glucose) and in several risk factors for complications of diabetes—blood lipids, body mass index, waist/hip ratio, and cortisol levels (a measure related to the body’s stress response). 

The diabetes review doesn’t give us final answers about the value of yoga, though, for two reasons: First, all the studies included in the review were performed outside the United States (most of them in India), and findings obtained in one population may not apply to another. Second, the studies were of only low-to-medium methodological quality, and some important study details were not available.

Fortunately, new research supported by NCCIH may help fill these gaps. Dr. Beth Bock, also of The Miriam Hospital, is leading rigorous NCCIH-funded studies to evaluate the potential role of yoga in diabetes management in U.S. populations, and this work is in progress now. An earlier pilot study showed that the yoga intervention Dr. Bock is testing was highly feasible and acceptable among people with diabetes and that it produced improvements in both psychosocial measures and blood glucose.

Whether or not we face major challenges in our lives the way that people with diabetes or other chronic health problems do, we all need to recognize the importance of stress and the impact it may be having on us. Addressing stress isn’t just about feeling better; it’s about fundamentally promoting health. We can all benefit from learning methods to mitigate stress that have well-documented beneficial effects on inflammation, oxidative stress, stress hormones, blood pressure, blood sugar, and sleep. Some of these tools, such as deep breathing and relaxation techniques, are easy to learn and can help “press reset on stress” —anytime, anywhere.  And doing so can have cumulative effects—preventing stress from building up during the day, and giving us a better night’s sleep and more energy the next day for physical activity, which itself helps relieve stress. Think of it as a “positive snowball” effect, leading to better health. 

And for those of us in the research community, including NCCIH, learning more about how to prevent, manage, and mitigate stress—and how best to put existing stress management tools into practice—will continue to be a high priority. 

Additional Resources

• Stress Fact Sheet
• Feeling Stressed? Ways To Improve Your Well-Being  (NIH News in Health)
• Stress Reset Video (The Healthy US Collaborative)

Past Messages From the Director

Understanding the Real Progress Driven by Artificial Intelligence August 19, 2024

Science Shouldn’t Be This Much Fun…But It Was on the Star Talk Podcast! July 23, 2024

Bringing Research Into the Real World of Health Care July 10, 2024

More messages

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Indian J Med Res
• v.146(4); 2017 Oct

Workplace stress: A neglected aspect of mental health wellbeing

Pallab k. maulik.

Deputy Director and Head of Research, The George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi 110 025, India ni.gro.etutitsniegroeg@kiluamp

Workplace stress is defined by the World Health Organization as ‘the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope’, and elaborated that it can be caused ‘by poor work organization (the way we design jobs and work systems, and the way we manage them), by poor work design ( e.g ., lack of control over work processes), poor management, unsatisfactory working conditions and lack of support from colleagues and supervisors’ 1 . While workplace stress, stigma and attitudes towards employees suffering from stress or mental illness have been researched and interventions developed to address them better, globally 2 , 3 , it still remains an oft-neglected aspect across different industries and countries, including India, and only a few of the learnings are actually implemented.

International laws have been in force for many decades to protect human rights of employees at workplace, and the key ones being Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 4 , Articles 6 and 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 5 and Article 27 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 6 . However, the execution of policies is variable and often suboptimal. Moreover, low- and middle-income countries where one has the largest population in working age groups, continue to lag behind in conducting or identifying suitable interventions, and often do not have adequate policies in place to prevent discrimination against employees with mental disorders 7 .

Workplace-related stress – a reality that needs to be addressed through evidence-based interventions

Brouwers et al 8 conducted a cross-sectional study across 35 countries including India and reported that about two-third of employees who had suffered from depression either faced discrimination at work or faced discrimination while applying for new jobs. This study also found that both anticipated and perceived discrimination was more in high-income countries compared to lower-income countries. Both perceived and anticipated discrimination are major causes for people suffering silently at the workplace and not seeking proper care. This by itself can be a major issue when seeking care for mental disorders as it adds to stigma related to help-seeking and increases treatment gap - the gap in the proportion of people who suffer from mental disorders and the proportion of them who actually receive adequate mental health care. If organizations are made aware of this, and they encourage staff to seek appropriate mental health care as per need, then it will not only lead to improved care for persons with mental disorders, but also to a situation where employees are comfortable discussing their mental health issues with appropriate staff and take actions early on, so that more severe mental disorders do not manifest.

Another risk factor is that besides depression or anxiety being an outcome of stress, physical disorders such as hypertension and diabetes can also be caused due to stress. While research has established the two-way link between stress and these physical disorders 9 , 10 , organizations need to realize this and encourage staff to maintain a good work-life balance. This by itself can be a difficult task to implement given deadlines, having a competitive edge, sustaining growth and one's personal need to earn more by doing overtime. Thus, organizations need to have guidelines about working hours based on good industrial practices and take measures to enforce these routinely.

Sexual harassment and bullying at workplace is another workplace-related stress that can happen at any organization. Both genders could be affected by these, but often women and those lower in the hierarchy are at increased risk. Organizations should be cognizant of this and take active measures to ensure that workplace is a safe and secure place for every worker. In India, there are specific legal provisions to ensure safety at workplace ( http://labour.gov.in/policies/safety-health-and-environment-work-place ), and there are specific laws to prevent sexual harassment of women ( http://indiacode.nic.in/acts-in-pdf/142013.pdf ). Strict guidelines and processes are advocated, and every organization should have identified committees to handle any such issue.

While extant research has tended to focus on alleviation of symptoms and risk factors associated with workplace-related mental disorders, less emphasis has been placed on gathering evidence on how mental disorders affect performance and absenteeism and how interventions have resulted in improvement of work performance and absenteeism 3 . Thus, more research is needed to gather evidence on the cost-effectiveness of interventions and the cost of mental disorder-related loss of productivity on the larger community. This is relevant to all countries and becomes specifically significant when each employment sector tries to become more competitive and wants to increase productivity while at the same time tries to keep their cost to a minimum. In low- and middle-income countries, there are additional needs to ( i ) conduct basic epidemiological studies to understand the prevalence of workplace-related mental disorders and specific risk factors associated with different employment sectors, ( ii ) understand what kind of systems are being put in place by different sectors to manage them, and ( iii ) to what degree are existing laws being followed and implemented, and what organizational restructuring is needed to improve the situation. Current evidence suggests that no single intervention can work in isolation and it is recommended to have a package of interventions at organization level which could be accessed by those in need 3 . Some interventions that were specifically found to be useful were enhancing employee control, promoting physical activity, cognitive behaviour therapy for stress management and problem-focused return to work programmes. On the contrary, counselling and debriefing following trauma were not effective 3 and any exposure to trauma should be followed by provision of psychological first aid and formal psychological support by trained professionals. Workplace screening for mental disorders followed by access to basic mental health services has been found to be effective, but could lead to a potential increase in anxiety levels in those who are screened as false positives, so routine screening at workplace is not recommended 3 .

Guidelines to improve workplace culture and reduce stress

The World Health Organization has outlined key factors related to stress at workplace and advocated guidelines to redeem them 11 . Some factors that cause increased stress at workplace include ‘workload (both excessive and insufficient work), lack of participation and control in the workplace, monotonous or unpleasant tasks, role ambiguity or conflict, lack of recognition at work, inequity, poor interpersonal relationships, poor working conditions, poor leadership and communication and conflicting home and work demands’ 11 . This document also outlined guidelines to improve the situation and enumerated four key steps which are not only relevant to individual organizations, but to other stakeholders also, such as trade unions, employees, government and employees 11 .

Step 1 : Analyzing the mental health issues - As a first step, it is essential to have a clear understanding of not only the prevalence/incidence and risk factors associated with workplace stress, but also a better knowledge about the cost implications to an organization in terms of lost productivity. This is an exercise that can be done at individual organizations, at specific employment sector level in specific regions or across regions. This may need gathering new data through surveys or collating data available with the human resources or anonymized health records.

Step 2 : Developing the policy - A policy can be developed once the initial knowledge gained through the first step is available. The primary objective of such a policy should be to address concerns of all stakeholders and adhere to the organizations vision and mission. This should involve multiple meetings with different stakeholders to identify key components that need to be addressed. This engagement should be a continuous process throughout the development and execution of the policy.

Step 3 : Developing strategies to implement the policy - While implementing the policies, care should be taken to identify the key strategies that need to be implemented, the processes that need to be in place to implement such strategies, targets to be achieved and timelines that need to be adhered to while implementing the strategies. Finally, any additional budgetary allocations or training required to implement the policies, need to be made available.

Step 4 : Implementing and evaluating the policy - The implementation of any strategy will need collaboration and clear buy-in from all stakeholders. For some strategies, one might need to have a small demonstration project to start off, and based on the results tweak the strategies and then scale it up to a larger forum. Before implementing a policy, information should be disseminated widely either through a formal launch meeting or individual organizations’ dissemination network. For example, major government level policies that impact large number of employees or employers could have a launch meeting, whereas policies affecting only one organization with limited staff could be disseminated through office emails. This would enable everyone to be aware of the policies. One major drawback of many policies is that they lack a formal evaluation. This should be built into the system and appropriately funded from the outset. Specific guidelines about how to monitor and evaluate the policies should be in place at the time of the launch of the policies and conducted as per agreed timelines.

Role of government

The government should play a key role in ensuring that policies are in place that address workplace stress. Not only should the government identify vulnerable populations such as women, children, persons with disability at different workplaces, but also ensure that every sector has appropriate safeguards to protect the rights of all employees including vulnerable populations. The government should also monitor how different sectors are performing with respect to workplace stress and have additional strategies in place to address issues related to sectors which have specifically higher level of physical or psychological stress such as mines, factories, health sector, among others. Legal mechanisms should be in place to enforce laws and regulate them and penalize organizations which flout existing laws. The legal system should provide avenues that can be accessed both by employers and employees alike. The aim should be that workplace is seen as a fair and non-discriminatory zone as far as stress, and mental ill-health are concerned.

Workplace stress and associated mental ill-health is a fact that every employer and employee lives with on a daily basis. However, it often is the case that neither are aware of the issues fully and nor are well informed about its ramifications. Although laws are present in most countries to ensure that the rights of persons suffering from mental disorders related to workplace stress are safeguarded, often such are not executed or regulated effectively, leading to a situation where persons with mental disorders are not able to verbalize their problems and suffer silently - a situation that ultimately leads to increasing mental health-related disability that affects productivity. In this year, when workplace stress is being identified globally as a cause for concern, all stakeholders should take additional notice of its importance and see what needs to be done to improve the situation on the ground and make workplace a safer and healthier place for all.

Acknowledgment

The author is an intermediate fellow of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.

Instant insights, infinite possibilities

61 intriguing psychology research topics to explore

Last updated

11 January 2024

Reviewed by

Brittany Ferri, PhD, OTR/L

Short on time? Get an AI generated summary of this article instead

Psychology is an incredibly diverse, critical, and ever-changing area of study in the medical and health industries. Because of this, it’s a common area of study for students and healthcare professionals.

We’re walking you through picking the perfect topic for your upcoming paper or study. Keep reading for plenty of example topics to pique your interest and curiosity.

• How to choose a psychology research topic

Exploring a psychology-based topic for your research project? You need to pick a specific area of interest to collect compelling data. 

Use these tips to help you narrow down which psychology topics to research:

Focus on a particular area of psychology

The most effective psychological research focuses on a smaller, niche concept or disorder within the scope of a study. 

Psychology is a broad and fascinating area of science, including everything from diagnosed mental health disorders to sports performance mindset assessments. 

This gives you plenty of different avenues to explore. Having a hard time choosing? Check out our list of 61 ideas further down in this article to get started.

Read the latest clinical studies

Once you’ve picked a more niche topic to explore, you need to do your due diligence and explore other research projects on the same topic. 

This practice will help you learn more about your chosen topic, ask more specific questions, and avoid covering existing projects. 

For the best results, we recommend creating a research folder of associated published papers to reference throughout your project. This makes it much easier to cite direct references and find inspiration down the line.

Find a topic you enjoy and ask questions

Once you’ve spent time researching and collecting references for your study, you finally get to explore. 

Whether this research project is for work, school, or just for fun, having a passion for your research will make the project much more enjoyable. (Trust us, there will be times when that is the only thing that keeps you going.) 

Now you’ve decided on the topic, ask more nuanced questions you might want to explore. 

If you can, pick the direction that interests you the most to make the research process much more enjoyable.

• 61 psychology topics to research in 2024

Need some extra help starting your psychology research project on the right foot? Explore our list of 61 cutting-edge, in-demand psychology research topics to use as a starting point for your research journey.

• Psychology research topics for university students

As a university student, it can be hard to pick a research topic that fits the scope of your classes and is still compelling and unique. 

Here are a few exciting topics we recommend exploring for your next assigned research project:

Mental health in post-secondary students

Seeking post-secondary education is a stressful and overwhelming experience for most students, making this topic a great choice to explore for your in-class research paper. 

Examples of post-secondary mental health research topics include:

Student mental health status during exam season

Mental health disorder prevalence based on study major

The impact of chronic school stress on overall quality of life

The impacts of cyberbullying

Cyberbullying can occur at all ages, starting as early as elementary school and carrying through into professional workplaces. 

Examples of cyberbullying-based research topics you can study include:

The impact of cyberbullying on self-esteem

Common reasons people engage in cyberbullying 

Cyberbullying themes and commonly used terms

Cyberbullying habits in children vs. adults

The long-term effects of cyberbullying

• Clinical psychology research topics

If you’re looking to take a more clinical approach to your next project, here are a few topics that involve direct patient assessment for you to consider:

Chronic pain and mental health

Living with chronic pain dramatically impacts every aspect of a person’s life, including their mental and emotional health. 

Here are a few examples of in-demand pain-related psychology research topics:

The connection between diabetic neuropathy and depression

Neurological pain and its connection to mental health disorders

Efficacy of meditation and mindfulness for pain management

The long-term effects of insomnia

Insomnia is where you have difficulty falling or staying asleep. It’s a common health concern that impacts millions of people worldwide. 

This is an excellent topic because insomnia can have a variety of causes, offering many research possibilities. 

Here are a few compelling psychology research topics about insomnia you could investigate:

The prevalence of insomnia based on age, gender, and ethnicity

Insomnia and its impact on workplace productivity

The connection between insomnia and mental health disorders

Efficacy and use of melatonin supplements for insomnia

The risks and benefits of prescription insomnia medications

Lifestyle options for managing insomnia symptoms

The efficacy of mental health treatment options

Management and treatment of mental health conditions is an ever-changing area of study. If you can witness or participate in mental health therapies, this can make a great research project. 

Examples of mental health treatment-related psychology research topics include:

The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for patients with severe anxiety

The benefits and drawbacks of group vs. individual therapy sessions

Music therapy for mental health disorders

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for patients with depression 

• Controversial psychology research paper topics

If you are looking to explore a more cutting-edge or modern psychology topic, you can delve into a variety of controversial and topical options:

The impact of social media and digital platforms

Ever since access to internet forums and video games became more commonplace, there’s been growing concern about the impact these digital platforms have on mental health. 

Examples of social media and video game-related psychology research topics include:

The effect of edited images on self-confidence

How social media platforms impact social behavior

Video games and their impact on teenage anger and violence

Digital communication and the rapid spread of misinformation

The development of digital friendships

Psychotropic medications for mental health

In recent years, the interest in using psychoactive medications to treat and manage health conditions has increased despite their inherently controversial nature. 

Examples of psychotropic medication-related research topics include:

The risks and benefits of using psilocybin mushrooms for managing anxiety

The impact of marijuana on early-onset psychosis

Childhood marijuana use and related prevalence of mental health conditions

Ketamine and its use for complex PTSD (C-PTSD) symptom management

The effect of long-term psychedelic use and mental health conditions

• Mental health disorder research topics

As one of the most popular subsections of psychology, studying mental health disorders and how they impact quality of life is an essential and impactful area of research. 

While studies in these areas are common, there’s always room for additional exploration, including the following hot-button topics:

Anxiety and depression disorders

Anxiety and depression are well-known and heavily researched mental health disorders. 

Despite this, we still don’t know many things about these conditions, making them great candidates for psychology research projects:

Social anxiety and its connection to chronic loneliness

C-PTSD symptoms and causes

The development of phobias

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) behaviors and symptoms

Depression triggers and causes

Self-care tools and resources for depression

The prevalence of anxiety and depression in particular age groups or geographic areas

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a complex and multi-faceted area of psychology research. 

Use your research skills to learn more about this condition and its impact by choosing any of the following topics:

Early signs of bipolar disorder

The incidence of bipolar disorder in young adults

The efficacy of existing bipolar treatment options

Bipolar medication side effects

Cognitive behavioral therapy for people with bipolar 

Schizoaffective disorder

Schizoaffective disorder is often stigmatized, and less common mental health disorders are a hotbed for new and exciting research. 

Here are a few examples of interesting research topics related to this mental health disorder:

The prevalence of schizoaffective disorder by certain age groups or geographic locations

Risk factors for developing schizoaffective disorder

The prevalence and content of auditory and visual hallucinations

Alternative therapies for schizoaffective disorder

• Societal and systematic psychology research topics

Modern society’s impact is deeply enmeshed in our mental and emotional health on a personal and community level. 

Here are a few examples of societal and systemic psychology research topics to explore in more detail:

Access to mental health services

While mental health awareness has risen over the past few decades, access to quality mental health treatment and resources is still not equitable. 

This can significantly impact the severity of a person’s mental health symptoms, which can result in worse health outcomes if left untreated. 

Explore this crucial issue and provide information about the need for improved mental health resource access by studying any of the following topics:

Rural vs. urban access to mental health resources

Access to crisis lines by location

Wait times for emergency mental health services

Inequities in mental health access based on income and location

Insurance coverage for mental health services

Systemic racism and mental health

Societal systems and the prevalence of systemic racism heavily impact every aspect of a person’s overall health.

Researching these topics draws attention to existing problems and contributes valuable insights into ways to improve access to care moving forward.

Examples of systemic racism-related psychology research topics include: 

Access to mental health resources based on race

The prevalence of BIPOC mental health therapists in a chosen area

The impact of systemic racism on mental health and self-worth

Racism training for mental health workers

The prevalence of mental health disorders in discriminated groups

LGBTQIA+ mental health concerns

Research about LGBTQIA+ people and their mental health needs is a unique area of study to explore for your next research project. It’s a commonly overlooked and underserved community.

Examples of LGBTQIA+ psychology research topics to consider include:

Mental health supports for queer teens and children

The impact of queer safe spaces on mental health

The prevalence of mental health disorders in the LGBTQIA+ community

The benefits of queer mentorship and found family

Substance misuse in LQBTQIA+ youth and adults

• Collect data and identify trends with Dovetail

Psychology research is an exciting and competitive study area, making it the perfect choice for projects or papers.

Take the headache out of analyzing your data and instantly access the insights you need to complete your next psychology research project by teaming up with Dovetail today.

Should you be using a customer insights hub?

Do you want to discover previous research faster?

Do you share your research findings with others?

Do you analyze research data?

Start for free today, add your research, and get to key insights faster

Editor’s picks

Last updated: 18 April 2023

Last updated: 27 February 2023

Last updated: 22 August 2024

Last updated: 5 February 2023

Last updated: 16 August 2024

Last updated: 9 March 2023

Last updated: 30 April 2024

Last updated: 12 December 2023

Last updated: 11 March 2024

Last updated: 4 July 2024

Last updated: 6 March 2024

Last updated: 5 March 2024

Last updated: 13 May 2024

Latest articles

Related topics, .css-je19u9{-webkit-align-items:flex-end;-webkit-box-align:flex-end;-ms-flex-align:flex-end;align-items:flex-end;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;-webkit-box-flex-wrap:wrap;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;row-gap:0;text-align:center;max-width:671px;}@media (max-width: 1079px){.css-je19u9{max-width:400px;}.css-je19u9>span{white-space:pre;}}@media (max-width: 799px){.css-je19u9{max-width:400px;}.css-je19u9>span{white-space:pre;}} decide what to .css-1kiodld{max-height:56px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}@media (max-width: 1079px){.css-1kiodld{display:none;}} build next, decide what to build next, log in or sign up.

Get started for free

150+ Trending Mental Health Research Topics For Students (2023)

Mental health is an important part of our well-being, encompassing our emotional, psychological, and social health. In the United States, the importance of addressing mental health has gained recognition, with growing concerns about stress, anxiety, and depression. 

In this blog, we will guide you the meaning of mental health research topics with our 5 useful tips. Moreover, we give you a list of 150+ Mental Health Research Topics in 2023, including qualitative, interesting, and even controversial ones, you’ll find options that suit your interests. From the impact of social media to the intersection of Mental Health with political science and music therapy, we’ve got you covered. 

Stay tuned for more on mental health research topics, and do not forget our bonus tips for selecting the best topics.

What Is Mental Health?

Table of Contents

Mental health is about how we feel and think inside our minds. It’s like taking care of our thoughts and emotions, just like we take care of our bodies. When our mental health is good, we usually feel happy and calm and can handle life’s challenges. But when our mental health is not so good, we might feel sad, anxious, or overwhelmed.

What Are Mental Health Research Topics? 

Mental health research topics are subjects that scientists and experts study to learn more about our thoughts and emotions. These topics include things like understanding what causes mental health problems, finding better ways to help people who are struggling, and figuring out how to prevent these issues from happening. Researchers also examine how different treatments, like therapy or medication, can help improve mental health.

These research topics are important because they help us learn more about our minds and how to keep them healthy. By studying these topics, scientists can discover new ways to support people who are facing mental health challenges, making it easier for everyone to lead happier and more balanced lives.

5 Useful Tips For Choosing Mental Health Research Topics

Here are some useful tips for choosing mental health research topics: 

1. Your research will be more focused and impactful.

2. You will be more likely to find funding and support.

3. You will be more likely to publish your research in peer-reviewed journals.

4. You will be more likely to make a huge contribution to the field of mental health research.

5. You will be more likely to enjoy your research experience.

Choosing the right mental health research topic is essential for success. By following the tips above, you can choose a topic that is focused, impactful, and relevant to your interests and expertise.

150+ Mental Health Research Topics In 2023

In this section, we will explore 150+ mental health research topics on different categories: 

Mental Health Research Topics For College Students

College students often face unique mental health challenges. Here are 15 research topics for studying mental health in this demographic:

• The impact of academic stress on college students’ mental health.
• Exploring the relationship between sleep patterns and mental well-being among college students.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of campus mental health services.
• Investigating the prevalence of substance abuse and its effects on mental health in college students.
• The role of peer support groups in reducing anxiety and depression among college students.
• Examining the influence of social media usage on the mental health of college students.
• The correlation between mental stress and financial stress issues in college students.
• The value of practicing mindfulness and meditation for college students’ mental health.
• Getting a better idea of how different cultures affect college students’ mental health.
• Trying to figure out how mental health and physical movement affect college students.
•  Investigating the stigma surrounding mental health issues in college environments.
•  Analyzing the role of academic pressure in the onset of eating disorders among college students.
•  The effectiveness of online mental health resources and apps for college students.
•  Examining the mental health challenges faced by LGBTQ+ college students.
•  The impact of COVID-19 and remote learning on the mental health of college students.

Mental Health Research Topics For High School Students

High school students also encounter unique mental health concerns. Here are 15 research topics for studying mental health in this age group:

•  The effects of academic pressure on the mental health of high school students.
•  Investigating the role of family dynamics in the emotional well-being of high school students.
•  Analyzing the impact of bullying and cyberbullying on the mental health of teenagers.
•  The relationship between social media use and body image issues in high school students.
•  Examining the effectiveness of mental health education programs in high schools.
•  Investigating the prevalence of self-harm and suicidal ideation among high school students.
•  Analyzing the influence of peer relationships on the mental health of adolescents.
•  The role of extracurricular activities in promoting positive mental health in high school students.
•  Exploring the effects of substances abuse on the mental well-being of teenagers.
•  Investigating the stigma surrounding mental health issues in high schools.
•  The effects of COVID-19 and remote learning on the mental health of high school students.
•  Examining the mental health challenges faced by immigrant and refugee high school students.
•  Analyzing the relationship between sleep patterns and mental health in adolescents.
•  The effectiveness of art and creative therapies in treating mental health issues in high school students.
•  Investigating the role of teachers and school counselors in supporting students’ mental health.

Mental Health Research Topics For Nursing Students

Nursing students play a vital role in mental health care. Here are 15 research topics relevant to nursing students:

•  The impact of nursing education on students’ mental health.
•  Investigating the effectiveness of therapeutic communication in psychiatric nursing.
•  Analyzing the role of psychiatric medications in mental health treatment.
•  The importance of self-care practices for nursing students’ mental well-being.
•  Exploring the challenges faced by nursing students in caring for patients with severe mental illness.
•  Investigating the influence of nursing curricula on reducing mental health stigma.
•  Analyzing the role of clinical placements in preparing nursing students for mental health nursing.
•  The effects of peer support programs on nursing students’ mental health.
•  Examining the prevalence of burnout and stress among nursing students.
• The importance of cultural skills in nursing care for different mental health patients.
•  Investigating the impact of technology and telehealth on mental health nursing practices.
•  Analyzing the ethical dilemmas faced by nursing students in mental health care.
•  Exploring the use of simulation training in psychiatric nursing education.
•  The effectiveness of mindfulness and stress management programs for nursing students.
•  Finding out what nursing students think about the healing model in mental health care is the goal of this study.

Read More 

• Frontend Project Ideas
• Business Intelligence Projects For Beginners

Psychology Culture, And Mental Health Research Topics

Psychology and culture intersect in complex ways. Here are 15 research topics in this area:

•  Cross-cultural variations in the manifestation of mental disorders.
•  The influence of cultural beliefs on help-seeking behaviors for mental health issues.
•  Analyzing cultural factors in the diagnosis and treatment of depression.
• The effect of acculturation on the mental health of newcomers.
•  Exploring cultural stigma surrounding mental illness in different societies.
•  Investigating the role of traditional healing practices in mental health care.
•  Cross-cultural perspectives on the concept of resilience in mental health.
•  Analyzing cultural variations in the experience of anxiety disorders.
•  The role of cultural competence in psychotherapy and counseling.
•  Exploring indigenous perspectives on mental health and well-being.
•  The impact of globalization on cultural attitudes toward mental health.
•  Investigating the influence of religion and spirituality on mental health outcomes.
•  Analyzing cultural differences in the perception and treatment of eating disorders.
•  The role of cultural identity in coping with trauma and adversity.
•  Cross-cultural perspectives on the use of psychotropic medications in mental health treatment.

Community Mental Health Research Topics

Community mental health research is crucial for improving public well-being. Here are 15 research topics in this field:

•  Evaluating the effectiveness of community-based mental health programs.
•  Investigating the role of peer support networks in community mental health.
•  Analyzing the impact of housing instability on mental health in urban communities.
•  Why early intervention programs are so important for avoiding serious mental illness.
•  Exploring the use of telemedicine in delivering mental health services to underserved communities.
•  Investigating the integration of mental health care into primary care settings.
•  Analyzing the effectiveness of crisis intervention teams in community policing.
•  The role of community art and creative programs in promoting mental well-being.
•  Examining the mental health challenges faced by homeless populations.
•  The impact of community outreach and education on reducing mental health stigma.
•  Investigating the use of community gardens and green spaces for improving mental health.
•  Analyzing the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and mental health disparities.
•  Exploring the role of community leaders and advocates in mental health policy.
•  The effectiveness of community-based substance abuse treatment programs.
•  Finding out what part social determinants of health play in the mental health of a community.

Global Mental Health Research Topics

Mental health is a global issue with unique challenges. Here are 15 research topics in global mental health:

•  Analyzing the burden of mental illness on global public health.
•  Investigating the cultural variations in mental health stigma worldwide.
•   The impact of arms conflict and displacement on mental well-being.
•  Exploring the use of teletherapy for improving access to mental health care in low-resource settings.
•  Analyzing the role of traditional healers in global mental health care.
•  Investigating the mental health challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers.
•  The effectiveness of international mental health aid and interventions.
•  Examining the mental health implications of weather change and natural disasters.
•  Analyzing the global prevalence and treatment of common mental disorders.
•  Exploring the intersection of infectious diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS) and mental health.
•  Mental Health in Urban Environments: Analyzing the unique challenges faced by individuals living in densely populated urban areas.
•  Mental Health and Digital Technology: Exploring the impact of digital technology on mental well-being across cultures and age groups.
•  Mental Health in Indigenous Communities: Investigating mental health disparities among indigenous populations and the role of cultural preservation.
•  Mental Health in the Workplace: Examining workplace-related stressors and policies to support employees’ mental well-being globally.
•  Youth Mental Health: Studying mental health challenges among children and adolescents, considering factors like education and family dynamics.

Qualitative Mental Health Research Topics

Qualitative research in mental health can provide rich insights into individuals’ experiences and perceptions. Here are 15 qualitative research topics in mental health:

•  Exploring the lived experiences of individuals with schizophrenia.
•  Qualitative analysis of the stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment.
•  Understanding the coping mechanisms of parents with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
•  Investigating the narratives of individuals recovering from addiction.
•  Analyzing the cultural perceptions of depression and its treatment.
•  Examining the subjective experiences of caregivers of dementia patients.
•  Discussing the role of spirituality in the recovery process for people with mental illness.
•  Qualitative assessment of the impact of mindfulness-based interventions on stress reduction.
•  Investigating the narratives of survivors of suicide attempts.
•  Understanding the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals in mental health care.
•  Analyzing the perceptions of veterans regarding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment.
•  Exploring the subjective experiences of individuals with eating disorders.
•  Qualitative assessment of the role of peer support groups in recovery from substance abuse.
• Investigating the stigma and barriers faced by individuals with bipolar disorder.
• Understanding the cultural variations in perceptions of anxiety disorders.

Interesting Mental Health Research Topics

Fascinating mental health topics can engage researchers and readers alike. Here are 15 intriguing research topics in mental health:

• The impact of virtual reality therapy on anxiety and phobias.
• Investigating the connection between creativity and mental well-being.
• Analyzing the role of pet therapy in reducing stress and anxiety.
• Exploring the effects of nature and green spaces on mental health.
• The relationship between personality types (e.g., introversion, extroversion) and mental health outcomes.
• Investigating the benefits of laughter therapy on mood and stress.
• Analyzing the effects of lucid dreaming on nightmares and trauma.
• Exploring the mental health benefits of volunteering and altruism.
• The impact of time-restricted eating on mood and cognitive function.
• Investigating the use of virtual support groups for individuals with social anxiety.
• Analyzing the relationship between music and memory in Alzheimer’s disease.
• Exploring the mental health effects of color psychology and interior design.
• The role of adventure therapy in enhancing self-esteem and resilience.
• Investigating the influence of childhood hobbies on adult mental well-being.
• Analyzing the connection between humor and emotional intelligence in mental health promotion.

Social Media On Mental Health Research Topics

Social media’s impact on mental health is a timely and relevant research area. Here are 15 research topics on this subject:

• Analyzing the relationship between social media use and feelings of loneliness.
• Investigating the effects of cyberbullying on adolescent mental health.
• The influence of social media comparison on body image dissatisfaction.
• Exploring the role of social media in the dissemination of mental health information.
• Analyzing the impact of social media detoxes on well-being.
• Investigating the link between excessive screen time and sleep disturbances.
• The effects of online support communities on mental health recovery.
• Exploring the role of influencer culture in shaping mental health perceptions.
• Analyzing the relationship between social media activism and mental well-being.
• Investigating the impact of “FOMO” (Fear of Missing Out) on anxiety levels.
• The role of social media in spreading wrong information about mental health.
• Exploring the effects of targeted advertising on mental health outcomes.
• Analyzing the relationship between online gaming and addictive behaviors.
• Investigating the influence of social media on political polarization and mental health.
• The role of social media in fostering a sense of community among marginalized groups with mental health issues.

Cool Mental Health Research Topics

Cool mental health topics can pique interest and lead to innovative research. Here are some cool research topics in mental health:

• Investigating the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances for mental health treatment.
• Analyzing the impact of virtual reality gaming on managing stress and anxiety.
• Exploring the use of artificial intelligence and chatbots in mental health counseling.
• The effectiveness of mindfulness apps and wearable devices in promoting mental well-being.
• Investigating the role of gut microbiota in mood and mental health.
• Analyzing the use of neurofeedback technology for improving attention and focus in ADHD.
• Exploring the benefits of equine-assisted therapy for individuals with PTSD .
• The potential of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for treating depression.
• Investigating the use of art therapy and virtual art galleries for mental health support.
• Analyzing the impact of music and sound therapy on sleep quality and anxiety.
• Exploring the use of scent and aroma therapy in mood regulation.
• The role of biofeedback and wearable sensors in managing panic disorders.
• Investigating the mental health benefits of urban gardening and green rooftops.
• Analyzing the use of brain-computer interfaces in enhancing emotional regulation.
• Exploring the connection between outdoor adventure activities and resilience in mental health recovery.

Understanding what mental health is and exploring various mental health research topics is crucial in addressing the challenges individuals face today. Choosing the right topic involves considering your audience and interests, as highlighted in our five tips. With 150+ mental health research topics for 2023, we have provided options for college, high school, and nursing students and those interested in psychology, culture, and global perspectives. 

Moreover, qualitative and intriguing topics offer diverse avenues for exploration while acknowledging the impact of social media on mental health is essential. Remember our bonus tips when selecting your mental health research topic – prioritize relevance and impact to make a meaningful contribution to this vital field.

Related Posts

Step by Step Guide on The Best Way to Finance Car

The Best Way on How to Get Fund For Business to Grow it Efficiently

• How It Works
• PhD thesis writing
• Master thesis writing
• Bachelor thesis writing
• Dissertation writing service
• Dissertation abstract writing
• Thesis proposal writing
• Thesis editing service
• Thesis proofreading service
• Thesis formatting service
• Coursework writing service
• Research paper writing service
• Architecture thesis writing
• Computer science thesis writing
• Engineering thesis writing
• History thesis writing
• MBA thesis writing
• Nursing dissertation writing
• Psychology dissertation writing
• Sociology thesis writing
• Statistics dissertation writing
• Buy dissertation online
• Write my dissertation
• Cheap thesis
• Cheap dissertation
• Custom dissertation
• Dissertation help
• Pay for thesis
• Pay for dissertation
• Senior thesis
• Write my thesis

207 Mental Health Research Topics For Top Students

College and university students pursuing psychology studies must write research papers on mental health in their studies. It is not always an exciting moment for the students since getting quality mental health topics is tedious. However, this article presents expert ideas and writing tips for students in this field. Enjoy!

What Is Mental Health?

It is an integral component of health that deals with the feeling of well-being when one realizes his or her abilities, cope with the pressures of life, and productively work. Mental health also incorporates how humans interact with each other, emote, or think. It is a vital concern of any human life that cannot be neglected.

How To Write Mental Health Research Topics

One should approach the subject of mental health with utmost preciseness. If handled carelessly, cases such as depression, suicide or low self-esteem may occur. That is why students are advised to carefully choose mental health research paper topics for their paper with the mind reader.

To get mental health topics for research paper, you can use the following sources:

• The WHO website
• Websites of renowned psychology clinics
• News reports and headlines.

However, we have a list of writing ideas that you can use for your inspiration. Check them out!

Top Mental Disorders Research Topics

• Is the psychological treatment of mental disorders working for all?
• How do substance-use disorders impede the healing process?
• Discuss the effectiveness of the mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP)
• Are non-specialists in mental health able to manage severe mental disorders?
• The role of the WHO in curbing and treating mental disorders globally
• The contribution of coronavirus pandemic to mental disorders
• How does television contribute to mental disorders among teens?
• Does religion play a part in propagating mental disorders?
• How does peer pressure contribute to mental disorders among teens?
• The role of the guidance and counselling departments in helping victims of mental disorders
• How to develop integrated and responsive mental health to such disorders
• Discuss various strategies for promotion and prevention in mental health
• The role of information systems in mental disorders

Mental Illness Research Questions

• The role of antidepressant medicines in treating mental illnesses
• How taxation of alcoholic beverages and their restriction can help in curbing mental illnesses
• The impact of mental illnesses on the economic development of a country
• Efficient and cost-effective ways of treating mental illnesses
• Early childhood interventions to prevent future mental illnesses
• Why children from single-parent families are prone to mental illnesses
• Do opportunities for early learning have a role in curbing mental diseases?
• Life skills programmes that everyone should embrace to fight mental illnesses
• The role of nutrition and diet in causing mental illness
• How socio-economic empowerment of women can help promote mental health
• Practical social support for elderly populations to prevent mental illnesses
• How to help vulnerable groups against mental illnesses
• Evaluate the effectiveness of mental health promotional activities in schools

Hot Mental Health Topics For Research

• Do stress prevention programmes on TV work?
• The role of anti-discrimination laws and campaigns in promoting mental health
• Discuss specific psychological and personality factors leading to mental disorders
• How can biological factors lead to mental problems?
• How stressful work conditions can stir up mental health disorders
• Is physical ill-health a pivotal contributor to mental disorders today?
• Why sexual violence has led many to depression and suicide
• The role of life experiences in mental illnesses: A case of trauma
• How family history can lead to mental health problems
• Can people with mental health problems recover entirely?
• Why sleeping too much or minor can be an indicator of mental disorders.
• Why do people with mental health problems pull away from others?
• Discuss confusion as a sign of mental disorders

Research Topics For Mental Health Counseling

• Counselling strategies that help victims cope with the stresses of life
• Is getting professional counselling help becoming too expensive?
• Mental health counselling for bipolar disorders
• How psychological counselling affects victims of mental health disorders
• What issues are students free to share with their guiding and counselling masters?
• Why are relationship issues the most prevalent among teenagers?
• Does counselling help in the case of obsessive-compulsive disorders?
• Is counselling a cure to mental health problems?
• Why talking therapies are the most effective in dealing with mental disorders
• How does talking about your experiences help in dealing with the problem?
• Why most victims approach their counsellors feeling apprehensive and nervous
• How to make a patient feel comfortable during a counselling session
• Why counsellors should not push patients to talk about stuff they aren’t ready to share

Mental Health Law Research Topics

• Discuss the effectiveness of the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Does the Capacity to Consent to Treatment law push patients to the wall?
• Evaluate the effectiveness of mental health courts
• Does forcible medication lead to severe mental health problems?
• Discuss the institutionalization of mental health facilities
• Analyze the Consent to Clinical Research using mentally ill patients
• What rights do mentally sick patients have? Are they effective?
• Critically analyze proxy decision making for mental disorders
• Why some Psychiatric Advance directives are punitive
• Discuss the therapeutic jurisprudence of mental disorders
• How effective is legal guardianship in the case of mental disorders?
• Discuss psychology laws & licensing boards in the United States
• Evaluate state insanity defence laws

Controversial Research Paper Topics About Mental Health

• Do mentally ill patients have a right to choose whether to go to psychiatric centres or not?
• Should families take the elderly to mental health institutions?
• Does the doctor have the right to end the life of a terminally ill mental patient?
• The use of euthanasia among extreme cases of mental health
• Are mental disorders a result of curses and witchcraft?
• Do violent video games make children aggressive and uncontrollable?
• Should mental institutions be located outside the cities?
• How often should families visit their relatives who are mentally ill?
• Why the government should fully support the mentally ill
• Should mental health clinics use pictures of patients without their consent?
• Should families pay for the care of mentally ill relatives?
• Do mentally ill patients have the right to marry or get married?
• Who determines when to send a patient to a mental health facility?

Mental Health Topics For Discussion

• The role of drama and music in treating mental health problems
• Explore new ways of coping with mental health problems in the 21 st century
• How social media is contributing to various mental health problems
• Does Yoga and meditation help to treat mental health complications?
• Is the mental health curriculum for psychology students inclusive enough?
• Why solving problems as a family can help alleviate mental health disorders
• Why teachers can either maintain or disrupt the mental state of their students
• Should patients with mental health issues learn to live with their problems?
• Why socializing is difficult for patients with mental disorders
• Are our online psychology clinics effective in handling mental health issues?
• Discuss why people aged 18-25 are more prone to mental health problems
• Analyze the growing trend of social stigma in the United States
• Are all people with mental health disorders violent and dangerous?

Mental Health Of New Mothers Research Topics

• The role of mental disorders in mother-infant bonding
• How mental health issues could lead to delays in the emotional development of the infant
• The impact of COVID-19 physical distancing measures on postpartum women
• Why anxiety and depression are associated with preterm delivery
• The role of husbands in attending to wives’ postpartum care needs
• What is the effectiveness of screening for postpartum depression?
• The role of resilience in dealing with mental issues after delivery
• Why marginalized women are more prone to postpartum depression
• Why failure to bond leads to mental disorders among new mothers
• Discuss how low and middle-income countries contribute to perinatal depression
• How to prevent the recurrence of postpartum mental disorders in future
• The role of anti-depression drugs in dealing with depression among new mothers
• A case study of the various healthcare interventions for perinatal anxiety and mood disorders

What Are The Hot Topics For Mental Health Research Today

• Discuss why mental health problems may be a result of a character flaw
• The impact of damaging stereotypes in mental health
• Why are many people reluctant to speak about their mental health issues?
• Why the society tends to judge people with mental issues
• Does alcohol and wasting health help one deal with a mental problem?
• Discuss the role of bullying in causing mental health disorders among students
• Why open forums in school and communities can help in curbing mental disorders
• How to build healthy relationships that can help in solving mental health issues
• Discuss frustration and lack of understanding in relationships
• The role of a stable and supportive family in preventing mental disorders
• How parents can start mental health conversations with their children
• Analyze the responsibilities of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
• The role of a positive mind in dealing with psychological problems

Good Research Topics On Refugees Mental Health

• Why do refugees find themselves under high levels of stress?
• Discuss the modalities of looking after the mental health of refugees
• Evaluate the importance of a cultural framework in helping refugees with mental illnesses
• How refugee camp administrators can help identify mental health disorders among refugees
• Discuss the implications of dangerous traditional practices
• The role of the UNHCR in assisting refugees with mental problems
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder among refugees
• Dealing with hopelessness among refugees
• The prevalence of traumatic experiences in refugee camps
• Does cognitive-behavioural therapy work for refugees?
• Discuss the role of policy planning in dealing with refugee-mental health problems
• Are psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine effective in refugee camps?
• Practical groups and in‐group therapeutic settings for refugee camps

Adolescent Mental Health Research Topics

• Discuss why suicide is among the leading causes of death among adolescents
• The role of acting-out behaviour or substance use in mental issues among adolescents
• Mental effects of unsafe sexual behaviour among adolescents
• Psychopharmacologic agents and menstrual dysfunction in adolescents
• The role of confidentiality in preventive care visits
• Mental health disorders and impairment among adolescents
• Why adolescents not in school risk developing mental disorders
• Does a clinical model work for adolescents with mental illnesses?
• The role of self-worth and esteem in dealing with adolescent mental disorders
• How to develop positive relationships with peers
• Technology and mental ill-health among adolescents
• How to deal with stigma among adolescents
• Curriculum that supports young people to stay engaged and motivated

Research Topics For Mental Health And Government

• Evaluate mental health leadership and governance in the United States
• Advocacy and partnerships in dealing with mental health
• Discuss mental health and socio-cultural perspective
• Management and coordination of mental health policy frameworks
• Roles and responsibilities of governments in dealing with mental health
• Monitoring and evaluation of mental health policies
• What is the essence of a mental health commission?
• Benefits of mental well-being to the prosperity of a country
• Necessary reforms to the mental health systems
• Legal frameworks for dealing with substance use disorders
• How mental health can impede the development of a country
• The role of the government in dealing with decaying mental health institutions
• Inadequate legislation in dealing with mental health problems

Abnormal Psychology Topics

• What does it mean to display strange behaviour?
• Role of mental health professionals in dealing with abnormal psychology
• Discuss the concept of dysfunction in mental illness
• How does deviance relate to mental illness?
• Role of culture and social norms
• The cost of treating abnormal psychology in the US
• Using aversive treatment in abnormal psychology
• Importance of psychological debriefing
• Is addiction a mental disease?
• Use of memory-dampening drugs
• Coercive interrogations and psychology

Behavioural Health Issues In Mental Health

• Detachment from reality
• Inability to withstand daily problems
• Conduct disorder among children
• Role of therapy in behavioural disorders
• Eating and drinking habits and mental health
• Addictive behaviour patterns for teenagers in high school
• Discuss mental implications of gambling and sex addiction
• Impact of maladaptive behaviours on the society
• Extreme mood changes
• Confused thinking
• Role of friends in behavioural complications
• Spiritual leaders in helping deal with behavioural issues
• Suicidal thoughts

Latest Psychology Research Topics

• Discrimination and prejudice in a society
• Impact of negative social cognition
• Role of personal perceptions
• How attitudes affect mental well-being
• Effects of cults on cognitive behaviour
• Marketing and psychology
• How romance can distort normal cognitive functioning
• Why people with pro-social behaviour may be less affected
• Leadership and mental health
• Discuss how to deal with anti-social personality disorders
• Coping with phobias in school
• The role of group therapy
• Impact of dreams on one’s psychological behaviour

Professional Psychiatry Research Topics

• The part of false memories
• Media and stress disorders
• Impact of gender roles
• Role of parenting styles
• Age and psychology
• The biography of Harry Harlow
• Career paths in psychology
• Dissociative disorders
• Dealing with paranoia
• Delusions and their remedy
• A distorted perception of reality
• Rights of mental caregivers
• Dealing with a loss
• Handling a break-up

Consider using our expert research paper writing services for your mental health paper today. Satisfaction is guaranteed!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment * Error message

Name * Error message

Email * Error message

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

As Putin continues killing civilians, bombing kindergartens, and threatening WWIII, Ukraine fights for the world's peaceful future.

Ukraine Live Updates

Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Coping with Stress

Many of us are facing challenges that can be stressful and overwhelming. Learning to cope with stress in a healthy way will help you, the people you care about, and those around you become more resilient.

Stress can cause the following:

• Feelings of fear, anger, sadness, worry, numbness, or frustration.
• Changes in appetite, energy, desires, and interests.
• Trouble concentrating and making decisions.
• Nightmares or problems sleeping.
• Physical reactions, such as headaches, body pains, stomach problems, or skin rashes.
• Worsening of chronic health problems and mental health conditions.
• Increased use of alcohol , illegal drugs (like heroin , cocaine , or methamphetamine ), and misuse of prescription drugs (like opioids).
• Healthy Ways to Cope with Stress
• If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
• Disaster Distress Helpline : CALL or TEXT 1-800-985-5990 (press 2 for Spanish)

Here are some ways you can manage stress, anxiety, grief, or worry:

• Take breaks from news stories, including those on social media. It’s good to be informed, but constant information about negative events can be upsetting. Consider limiting news to just a couple times a day and disconnecting from phone, TV, and computer screens for a while.
• Eat healthy. Have fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, and low-fat or no-fat dairy. Limit foods with unhealthy fats, salt, and added sugars. See Healthy Eating Tips .
• Get enough sleep.  Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day to help you sleep better . Adults need 7 or more hours per night.
• Move more and sit less. Every little bit of physical activity helps. Start small and build up to 2 ½ hours a week. You can break it into smaller amounts such as 20 to 30 minutes a day.
• Limit alcohol  intake. Choose not to drink, or drink in moderation on days you drink alcohol. Moderation means having 2 drinks or less a day for men or 1 drink or less for women. Find out more at Drink Less, Be Your Best .
• Avoid using illegal drugs or prescription drugs in ways other than prescribed. Don’t take someone else’s prescription. Substance use treatment is available, and recovery starts with asking for help.
• Avoid smoking , vaping, and the use of other tobacco products. People can and do quit smoking  for good.
• Continue with regular health appointments, tests, screenings, and vaccinations.
• Take deep breaths, stretch, or meditate .
• Try to do some other activities you enjoy.
• Talk with people you trust about your concerns and how you are feeling.
• Connect with your community-based or faith-based organizations.

For Everyone

• How Right Now — Finding What Helps
• Coping with a Disaster or Traumatic Event
• Suicide Prevention
• I’m So Stressed Out! Fact Sheet (NIMH)
• Mindfulness Coach – PTSD: National Center for PTSD (va.gov)

For Families and Children

• Helping Children Cope with Emergencies
• Adolescent Mental Health
• Tools for Supporting Emotional Wellbeing in Children and Youth

How stress affects your health

Stress can be brief, situational, and a positive force motivating performance, but if experienced over an extended period of time it can become chronic stress, which negatively impacts health and well-being.

• Chronic Illness

Stress : We’ve all felt it. Sometimes stress can be a positive force, motivating you to perform well at your piano recital or job interview. But often—like when you’re stuck in traffic—it’s a negative force. If you experience stress over a prolonged period of time, it could become chronic—unless you take action.

A natural reaction

Have you ever found yourself with sweaty hands on a first date or felt your heart pound during a scary movie? Then you know you can feel stress in both your mind and body.

This automatic response developed in our ancient ancestors as a way to protect them from predators and other threats. Faced with danger, the body kicks into gear, flooding the body with stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol that elevate your heart rate, increase your blood pressure, boost your energy, and prepare you to deal with the problem.

These days, you’re not likely to face the threat of being eaten. But you probably do confront multiple challenges every day, such as meeting deadlines, paying bills, and juggling childcare that make your body react the same way. As a result, your body’s natural alarm system—the “fight or flight” response—may be stuck in the on position. And that can have serious consequences for your health.

Pressure points

Even short-lived, minor stress can have an impact. You might get a stomachache before you have to give a presentation, for example. More major acute stress, whether caused by a fight with your spouse or an event like an earthquake or terrorist attack, can have an even bigger impact.

Repeated acute stress may also contribute to inflammation in the circulatory system , particularly in the coronary arteries, and this is one pathway that is thought to tie stress to a heart attack. It also appears that how a person responds to stress can affect cholesterol levels.

Chronic stress

When stress starts interfering with your ability to live a normal life for an extended period, it becomes even more dangerous. The longer the stress lasts, the worse it is for both your mind and body. You might feel fatigued, unable to concentrate, or irritable for no good reason, for example. But chronic stress causes wear and tear on your body, too.

The long-term activation of the stress response system and the overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones that come with it can disrupt almost all of your body's processes. This can put you at increased risk for a variety of physical and mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, digestive issues, headaches, muscle tension and pain, heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep problems, weight gain, and memory and concentration impairment.

Chronic stress may also cause disease, either because of changes in your body or the overeating, smoking, and other bad habits people use to cope with stress. Job strain—high demands coupled with low decision-making latitude—is associated with increased risk of coronary disease , for example. Other forms of chronic stress, such as depression and low levels of social support, have also been implicated in increased cardiovascular risk.

Chronic stress also  suppresses the body's immune system , making it harder to recover from illnesses.

What you can do

Reducing your stress levels can not only make you feel better right now, but may also protect your health long-term. Several research studies have demonstrated, for example, that interventions to improve psychological health can have a beneficial impact on cardiovascular health . As a result,  researchers recommend boosting your positive affect—feelings like happiness, joy, contentment, and enthusiasm—by making time for enjoyable activities every day.

Other strategies for reducing stress include:

• Identify what’s causing stress. Monitor your state of mind throughout the day. If you feel stressed, write down the cause, your thoughts, and your mood. Once you know what’s bothering you, develop a plan for addressing it. That might mean setting more reasonable expectations for yourself and others or asking for help with household responsibilities, job assignments, or other tasks. List all your commitments, assess your priorities, and then eliminate any tasks that are not absolutely essential.
• Build strong relationships. Relationships can be a source of stress. Research has found that negative, hostile reactions with your spouse cause immediate changes in stress-sensitive hormones, for example. But relationships can also serve as stress buffers. Reach out to family members or close friends and let them know you’re having a tough time. They may be able to offer practical assistance and support, useful ideas, or just a fresh perspective as you begin to tackle whatever’s causing your stress.
• Walk away when you’re angry. Before you react, take time to regroup by counting to 10. Then reconsider. Walking or other physical activities can also help you work off steam. Plus, exercise increases the production of endorphins, your body’s natural mood booster. Commit to a daily walk or other form of exercise—a small step that can make a big difference in reducing stress levels.
• Rest your mind. To help ensure you get the recommended seven or eight hours of shut-eye, cut back on caffeine, remove distractions such as television or computers from your bedroom, and go to bed at the same time each night. Research shows that activities like yoga and relaxation exercises not only help reduce stress, but also boost immune functioning .
• Get help. If you continue to feel overwhelmed, consult with a psychologist or other licensed mental health professional who can help you learn how to manage stress effectively. They can help you identify situations or behaviors that contribute to your chronic stress and then develop an action plan for changing them.

Recommended Reading

Related reading

• Stress effects on the body
• Stress in America

You may also like