The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) domains positive valence system, negative valence system, cognitive systems, and social processes and their relationship with stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in a university student sample

Our findings demonstrate a notable mental health burden in university students. We found associations between RDoC domains and all three mental health outcomes. Depressive symptoms were associated with all assessed RDoC domains. Anxiety and stress were linked to NVS- and CS-scores. Mental burden was therefore predominantly associated with heightened negative affect, anxiety, and subjectively perceived impaired cognitive performance. Depressive symptom burden was additionally associated with reduced positive affect and impaired social behavior and interaction. No faculty-specific burden was observed. The study contributes to understanding university students' mental health burden and represents a further step in conceptualizing stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms based on the RDoC framework in a non-clinical sample.