Correlation between studying strategies, personal and psychological factors with academic achievement and intelligence in health sciences university students: a cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: To date, there are no sufficient studies aimed to determine a correlation between personal, academic, and psychological variables with academic achievement, measured with the grade point average (GPA) and intelligence in university students according to each sex. STUDY AIM: To determine the correlation between studying strategies, personal and psychological factors with GPA and intelligence in a sample of health sciences university students. METHODS: Health Sciences university students, were invited to participate, those who accepted were cited in a computer room where they signed an informed consent and filled an electronic questionnaire with sociodemographic, behavioral, psychological variables and studying strategies (from the MLSQ instrument) afterwards they performed a verbal and non-verbal intelligence test (Shipley-2). RESULTS: A total of 439 students were included, from which 297 (67.7%) were women. The mean of age was 20.34 ± 2.61 years old. We found that no differences in GPA where observed between sexes. We detected a higher correlation between combined intelligence and GPA in women than in men. In addition, most studying strategies showed a higher correlation with GPA than intelligence scores in men´s sample. All these findings coincide with the fact that preparatory GPA was the most correlated variable with university GPA in both sexes. Finally, women showed higher levels of the sum of diseases, somatization, anxiety, depression and academic stress than men, and all these variables showed low significant correlations with the combined intelligence score only in women´s sample. CONCLUSION: Verbal and non-verbal intelligence scores show a lower association to GPA in men than in women, while studying strategies showed a higher association with GPA in men than in women.

Sex Differences in Mental Status and Coping Strategies among Adult Mexican Population: A Cross-Sectional Study.

We performed a cross-sectional study in order to determine the association between stress coping strategies and stress, depression, and anxiety, in which the Mexican population was invited to answer these variables by an electronic questionnaire. A total of 1283 people were included, of which 64.8% were women. Women presented higher levels of stress, depression, and anxiety than men; likewise, women showed a higher frequency of some maladaptive coping strategies (behavioral disengagement and denial) and lower levels of some adaptive ones (active coping and planning); additionally, maladaptive coping strategies were positively correlated with stress and depression in both sexes: self-blame, behavioral disengagement, denial, substance use, and self-distraction. Likewise, there were negative correlations between stress and depression and the adaptive strategies: planning, active coping, acceptance, and positive reframing. For women, religion presented negative correlations with stress, depression, and anxiety, and humor showed low positive correlations with stress, anxiety, and depression. In conclusion, most adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies are common in both sexes with the exception of religion, which seems to be adaptive in women and neutral in men, and humor, which seems to be adaptive in men and maladaptive in women. In addition, emotional and instrumental support seem to be neutral in both sexes.

Association between Psychological, Biochemical and Personal Factors with the Inflammatory Marker High-Sensitive C Reactive Protein (Hs-CRP) in Mexican Healthy Population.

In the last decades, it has been shown that inflammatory processes play a role in the development of mental and physical problems; although some studies have researched the relationship between inflammation and psychological variables, the inclusion of biochemical variables as possible confounders has been limited. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine whether psychological variables are associated with the inflammatory marker, highly sensitive CRP (hs-CRP), after controlling for personal and biochemical variables in the Mexican population. The study was performed at the University of Guadalajara facilities, during the second half of 2022. Healthy subjects were invited to participate in the study, which consisted of the measurement of personal, psychological, and biochemical variables. We included 172 participants, 92 (52.9%) of which were women; the median (range) of age of the whole sample was 22 (18-69) years old. In the bivariate analysis, significant positive correlations were observed between hs-CRP and body mass index (BMI) and waist/hip ratio (WHR) in both sexes, together with leukocytes, uric acid, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), triglycerides, and the liver enzymes gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). In the multivariate regression analysis of the global and men's samples, anxiety was positively associated with hs-CRP, while depression and positive relations with others were negatively associated with hs-CRP. In conclusion, psychological variables influence inflammation mainly in men, and anxiety was the main contributor; in addition, positive relation with others is a variable that should be further explored as a psychological protector of inflammation in both sexes.

Brief COPE Short Version (Mini-COPE): A Proposal of Item and Factorial Reduction in Mexican Population.

The factorial reduction of Brief COPE has not been successfully replicated by independent studies, and few have been performed in Spanish-speaking populations; therefore, the objective of this study was to perform a factorial reduction of the instrument in a large sample of the Mexican population and perform a convergent and divergent validity of the factors obtained. We distributed a questionnaire via social networks with sociodemographic and psychological variables, including the Brief COPE and the scales of the CPSS, GAD-7, and CES-D to measure stress, anxiety, and depression. A total of 1283 persons were included, most of whom (64.8%) were women and had a bachelor's degree (55.2%). After performing the exploratory factorial analysis, we did not find a model with an adequate fit and a reduced number of factors; therefore, we decided to reduce the number of items according to the most representative ones of adaptive, maladaptive, and emotional coping strategies. The resulting model with three factors showed good fit parameters and good internal consistency of the factors. In addition, the nature and naming of the factors were confirmed by convergent and divergent validity, with significant negative correlations between factor 1 (active/adaptive) and stress, depression, and anxiety, significant positive correlations between factor 2 (avoidant/maladaptive) and these three variables, and no significant correlation between factor 3 (emotional/neutral) and stress or depression. This shortened version of the brief COPE (Mini-COPE) is a good option to evaluate adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies in Spanish-speaking populations.

Association between Emotional Intelligence and Stress Coping Strategies According to Sex in Mexican General Population.

Emotional intelligence has been associated with adaptive coping in the adolescent and young population; however, the association of specific dimensions of emotional intelligence with each coping strategy has not been associated in general nor by each sex separately. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine such an association. The general population was invited to perform an electronic questionnaire via social networks. A sample of 984 individuals were included, from which 62.1% were women, in whom we detected higher levels of emotional attention, and lower levels of emotional clarity and emotional repair, as well as increased levels of stress, depression and anxiety than men. In the bivariate correlations we observed significant positive correlations between emotional attention with stress, depression and anxiety, and significant negative correlations between emotional clarity and emotional repair with the three negative psychological variables, in both sexes. Adaptive coping strategies (mainly active coping and planning) showed positive correlations with emotional attention, emotional clarity and repair, being higher for emotional clarity and repair in both sexes. In addition, these two subscales also showed low negative correlations between some maladaptive strategies in both sexes, which suggests that interventions addressed to increase these emotional abilities could be useful in increasing adaptive coping.

Association of Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Stress-Coping Strategies with Somatization and Number of Diseases According to Sex in the Mexican General Population.

Somatization and number of diseases are interrelated variables, whose association with stress-coping strategies, according to sex, has not been investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate such association in a sample of the Mexican general population. The general population was invited to answer an electronic questionnaire via the social networks-e-mail, WhatsApp and Facebook-by the research team. A sample of 1008 adults was obtained, of which 62.2% were women, in whom we detected higher levels of negative psychological variables, somatization and number of diseases and lower levels of sleep quality. Positive moderate correlations were found between depresion, anxiety and stress with somatization, on one hand, and with the number of diseases, on the other, and negative moderate correlations were found between sleep quality and the two dependent variables. As for the coping strategies, self-blame, behavioral disengagement, denial, self-distraction and substance use were positively correlated with somatization. Of these, self-blame, substance use, and self-distraction also showed a positive correlation with number of diseases in both sexes. Negative correlations were detected for active coping and the two dependent variables in men and for religion and planning with somatization in women. In conclusion, the coping strategies showed significant correlations with somatization and number of diseases in both sexes.

Relationship between lifestyle and positive psychological functioning in university administrative staff / Relación entre el estilo de vida y el funcionamiento psicológico positivo en personal administrativo universitario

Abstract In Mexico, healthy lifestyle has a low prevalence. The importance of a healthy lifestyle lies in avoiding the emergence of a chronic non-communicable disease. Thus, university administrative personnel are a vulnerable population due to working conditions that prevent them from having a healthy lifestyle, so it is necessary to analyze psychological variables that can explain how to promote and develop a healthy lifestyle. The purposes of this study were to identify relationships among lifestyle (LS) and positive psychological functioning (PPF) and their differences by gender in the administrative staff; a cross-sectional and correlational study was conducted. University administrative staff (n = 102), were recruited using the snowball sampling method, forming a non-probabilistic sample, completed the Fantastic Lifestyle Questionnaire and the Positive Psychological Functioning Scale. LS has a statistically significant correlation with PPF (r = .355, p = .001); in addition, it is worth pointing out that showing a low level of PPF implies a lower probability of having a healthy LS (Ψ = 28.333, 4.965 - 161.675). Results suggest the relevance of interventions to develop psychological resources in people seeking the adoption of a healthy LS.

Resumen En México, el estilo de vida saludable tiene una baja prevalencia. La importancia de un estilo de vida saludable radica en evitar la aparición de una enfermedad crónica no transmisible. Así, el personal administrativo universitario es una población vulnerable debido a las condiciones laborales que les impiden tener un estilo de vida saludable, por lo que es necesario analizar las variables psicológicas que pueden explicar cómo promoverlo y desarrollarlo. Los propósitos de este estudio fueron identificar las relaciones entre el estilo de vida (EV) y el funcionamiento psicológico positivo (FPP) y sus diferencias por sexo en personal administrativo universitario para lo cual se realizó un estudio transversal y correlacional. El personal administrativo universitario (n = 102) reclutado mediante el método de muestreo de bola de nieve, completó el Cuestionario de Estilo de Vida Fantástico y la Escala de Funcionamiento Psicológico Positivo. El EV presentó una correlación estadísticamente significativa con el FPP (r = .355, p = .001); además, vale la pena señalar que tener un bajo nivel de FPP implica una menor probabilidad de tener un EV saludable (Ψ = 28.333, 4.965 - 161.675). Los resultados sugieren la relevancia de las intervenciones para desarrollar recursos psicológicos en personas que buscan la adopción de un EV saludable.