ACADEMIC STRESS, PERSONALITY, SOCIAL SUPPORT, AND MEDIATING ROLE OF COPING STRATEGIES ON MENTAL HEALTH OF MEDICAL STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL (UCH), IBADAN, NIGERIA.

Motivated by a dearth of research on stress, particularly among medical students in Nigeria, the authors attempt to analyse the relationship among Academic stress, Personality, social support, coping mechanisms and mental health of medical students in a medical institution in Ibadan, Nigeria. Hierarchical regression is applied to examine this relationship. In addition, questionnaires were distributed to 264 students at University College Hospital Ibadan, Nigeria.b Findings show no relationship between academic stress and mental health of the medical students, whereas, personality traits and coping mechanism play a significant role in their mental health, be it each of the different traits or collectively. It was also discovered that coping mechanism was a significant predictor of good mental health among the medical students. Conclusion and recommendation were made towards having curriculum reviewed to include social support and coping mechanisms to help the students cope better with their mental health and academic stress.