Background & Aims: This study aimed to determine the relationship and anticipated changes on mental health of university students through hope and anxiety variables.

Materials & Methods: This descriptive correlative study was conducted on undergraduates of Urmia University in the 2010-2011 school year. According to Morgan, Samples of 340 subjects (205 female and 135 male) were selected by stratified random sampling from this statistical society. The Questionnaires of Snyder academic Hope Scale (HS), death anxieties scale (DA), and mental health questionnaire (GHQ-28) were used as instruments for data collection in this study. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation, independent t-test, and stepwise regression.

Results: The results showed that hope and anxiety were significantly different among male and female students. Analyses of the data using t-test indicated there wasn't significant difference among boys and girls in terms of the level of mental health. The results revealed hope was negatively associated with death anxiety. The result of regression analysis showed that hope and anxiety of death was significant predicting of mental health. Furthermore, they could have predicted and explained % 31.2 of changes of mental health.

Conclusion: The result indicates that the hope and death anxiety can significantly predict mental health. So it can be concluded with the raising hope among the students, their death anxiety rate decreased and their mental health increased. 

SOURCE: URMIA MED J 2013: 24(8): 616 ISSN: 1027-3727