Background: Undergraduate nursing students suffer from considerable psychological distress, which affects their academic and clinical practice performance. Current research on the psychological distress of undergraduate nursing students has focused mainly on its overall level and ignored its heterogeneity. This study aimed to identify the heterogeneity in psychological distress among undergraduate nursing students and further explore the influencing factors (demographic variables, core self-evaluation, emotional intelligence and its dimensions) of different psychological distress profiles.
Method: This study adopted a cross-sectional design. A total of 397 undergraduate nursing students from a medical university located in southeast China were recruited in December 2023. Data were collected using a demographic information questionnaire, the 10-item Kessler psychological distress scale, the core self-evaluation scale, and the emotional intelligence scale. A latent profile analysis was used to identify the heterogeneity in psychological distress among undergraduate nursing students. In addition, multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors of different psychological distress profiles of undergraduate nursing students.
Results: Four psychological distress profiles of undergraduate nursing students were identified: the low psychological distress group, the medium psychological distress group, the medium psychological distress-low anxiety group, and the high psychological distress group. The educational level of the mother, core self-evaluation, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion were significant influencing factors of different psychological distress profiles.
Conclusion: Nearly half of the undergraduate nursing students were classified into the medium psychological distress group and the medium psychological distress-low anxiety group. Special attention should be given to undergraduate nursing students whose mothers have higher educational levels, as these students may suffer from higher levels of psychological distress due to greater family expectations. In addition, strengthening undergraduate nursing students' core self-evaluation and improving their ability to use and regulate emotion may be effective strategies to improve these students' psychological distress.
Clinical trial number: Not applicable.
Keywords: Core self-evaluation; Emotional intelligence; Latent profile analysis; Psychological distress; Undergraduate nursing student.
© 2025. The Author(s).