The mediating role of resilience in the relationship between mental health literacy and psychological distress among medical sciences students

Background: Paying attention to medical sciences students’ psychological distress is paramount. Given the importance of this issue, the present research aimed to determine the mediating role of resilience in the relationship between medical sciences students’ mental health literacy and their psychological distress. Methods: The present cross-sectional research was a descriptive correlational study examining students at the Guilan University of Medical Sciences in 2024. A total of 230 individuals were selected by the convenience sampling method. The data were collected by Conner-Davidson’s Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), the Mental Literacy Health Questionnaire (MHLQ), and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) and analyzed by the SPSS and AMOS software. Results: The results revealed the desirable fit of the proposed model. The structural equations outcomes displayed that mental health literacy and resilience influenced psychological distress directly and significantly. Likewise, mental health literacy had a positive, direct, and significant effect on resilience and an indirect effect on psychological distress through the mediation of resilience. In fact, resilience partially mediated mental health literacy and psychological distress. Conclusion: It can be generally concluded that mental health literacy affects psychological distress directly and indirectly through resilience.