Professional Documents
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Author(s)
Citation
Issued Date
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Rights
2016
http://hdl.handle.net/10722/225100
by
March 2016
Submitted by
The aims of this study were to construct a culturally relevant scale for
measuring irrational beliefs among university students in the Hong Kong Chinese
context, to examine the relationship of irrational beliefs with emotional
disturbances (specifically stress, anxiety and depression) in university students,
and to investigate the differences in irrational beliefs and depression, anxiety, and
i
The construction of the Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational Attitude Scale
(CIBRAS) for university students was based on (i) literature review (ii) expert
panel review for content validity evaluation, (iii) a pilot test of 200 HKU students
to determine the scales psychometric properties and probe the exploratory factor
analysis, and (iv) confirmatory factor analysis to test for construct validity of the
CIBRAS (conducted with a further 655 HKU students). The results showed that
the five-factor 19-item CIBRAS had good psychometric properties, including
good internal consistency (Cronbach Alphas ranging from 0.64 to 0.80), content
validity (CVI=0.96 for relevance, 0.94 for clarity and 0.94 for representativeness),
construct validity (explaining 60.1% of the total variance), and adequate fit
indices (NC=2.8, CFI=.94, NFI=.93, NNFI=.93, IFI=.94, RMSEA=.075, and
SRMR=.074).
The SEM results also showed that the model of Irrational Beliefs in
Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students had good fit (NC=2.68,
CFI=.94, NFI=.91, NNFI=.93, IFI=.94, RMSEA=.051 and SRMR=.082). The
results showed that university students having higher levels of irrational beliefs
were more likely to have depression, anxiety and stress.
programs, those in the second year of study, or those living with family or with
inconvenient access to public transportation were likely to have more irrational
beliefs. In addition, male students, medical students, those studying 5-year
programs, those with inconvenient access to public transportation, those sharing
living arrangements with others or those with insufficient living space were found
having significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress.
iii
Declaration
I declare that this thesis represents my own work, except where due
acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis,
dissertation or report submitted to this university or to any other institution for a
degree, diploma or other qualifications.
Signed
CHAN Ho Wai, Queenie
Acknowledgements
I also want to thank Dr Patcy Yeung for her valuable comments on my work.
Her criticism and advice took this thesis to a higher level of intellectual achievement.
I would like to thank Eric and David for their editing and advice on statistical
solutions, respectively. The dissertation is much improved due to their efforts.
II
Table of Contents
Declaration
Acknowledgements
II
Table of Contents
III
List of Tables
VI
List of Figures
VIII
Chapter One
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
Chapter Two
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.1.2
2.1.3
2.1.4
2.2.2
2.2.3
2.3.2
2.3.3
students ...............................................................................................................42
2.4.1
2.4.2
2.5
Chapter Three
3.1
Introduction............................................................................................74
3.2
3.2.2
3.2.3
3.3
3.4
Chapter Four
4.1
4.2
Introduction ...............................................................................93
4.1.2
4.1.3
4.1.4
4.1.5
Introduction .............................................................................100
4.2.2
4.2.3
4.2.4
4.2.5
transportation ...........................................................................................106
4.3
4.4
4.3.2
4.3.3
Chapter Five
5.1
Introduction .............................................................................118
5.1.2
5.1.3
5.1.4
5.1.5
transportation ...........................................................................................124
5.2
5.2.2
5.2.3
5.2.4
instruments ...............................................................................................131
5.3
Introduction .............................................................................132
5.3.2
5.4
5.4.2
Anxiety-Stress ..........................................................................................157
5.5
Chapter Six
6.1
6.1.1
Introduction .............................................................................166
6.1.2
6.1.3
6.2
6.3
6.4
Conclusion ...........................................................................................192
References
194
Appendices
(A)
225
(B)
231
(C)
239
List of Tables
Pages
3.1
4.1
4.2
86
95
99
4.3
103
4.4
105
4.5
107
4.6
109
4.7
112
4.8
114
4.9
116
5.1
121
5.2
123
5.3
125
5.4
127
5.5
130
5.6
135
5.7
5.8
5.9
5.10
5.11
138
140
144
147
150
153
(N=655)
5.13
156
VI
5.14
156
5.15
156
5.16
156
5.17
159
5.18
5.19
5.20
The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and DepressionAnxiety-Stress for university students (Model A)
The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and DepressionAnxiety-Stress for university students (Model B)
The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and DepressionAnxiety-Stress for university students (Model C)
160
161
162
VII
List of Figures
Pages
2.1
2.2
2.3
The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and DepressionAnxiety-Stress for university students (Model A)
The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and DepressionAnxiety-Stress for university students (Model B)
The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and DepressionAnxiety-Stress for university students (Model C)
68
69
69
4.1
111
5.1
128
5.2
5.3
5.4
The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and DepressionAnxiety-Stress for university students (Model A)
The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and DepressionAnxiety-Stress for university students (Model B)
The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and DepressionAnxiety-Stress for university students (Model C)
160
161
162
VIII
Chapter One
1.1
For the academic year 2012/2013, there were 93,934 students enrolled in
local university programs, including 7,041 sub-degree students, 76,353
undergraduate students and 10,540 postgraduate students (UGC, 2013). At HKU,
the overall student enrolment in undergraduate programs is 15,560 (HKU, 2012).
Anxiety and depression were reported in youngsters, particularly university
students. Indeed, university years have been considered one of the most stressful
periods of a persons life (Hales, 2009). Zhao (2007) suggested that Chinese
education has been characterized as being examination-oriented, and the scores of
academic results represent the only indicator of success. University is a stressful
time for many students, as they need to adapt to new educational and social
environments (Essandoh, 1995). It is even more stressful for international
students, who must learn different cultural values and languages in addition to
coping with academic requirements (Mori, 2000).
States (Misra & Castillo, 2004). Some academic stressors, such as academic
competition, parental expectations, time management, financial burdens and
academic performance were reported (Cheng, Leong, & Geist, 1993). According
to Oswalt and Riddock (2007). Coursework has a significant impact on students
stress. Similar results were also reported by other authors (Iglesias et al., 2005;
Kaitelidou & Pavlakis, 2007). The high level of stress related to academic
performance is consistent with existing literature (Stecker, 2004).
Riddock (2007), the two most common coping strategies used by females are
talking with friends and eating comfort foods. In contrast, males are more likely to
veg out or resort to exercise. In comparing the stress levels between males and
females, it was found that females are more stressed than males (Dusselier, Dunn,
Wang, Shelley, & Wahlen, 2005; Oswalt & Riddock, 2007).
During their senior year, students perceive that they will lose their identity as
students, and must prepare for their life after graduation from university.
Moreover, they find themselves facing the prospect of financial independence
after leaving university. Therefore, a students ambiguity about his or her future
role likely peaks during senior year.
Many studies confirm the correlation between irrational beliefs with different
1.2
There are some irrational beliefs scales using broad statements in clinical
research, which in turn lead to mixed results and inconclusive findings. Solomon
et al. (2003) proposed that more sensitive measures of cognitive construct which
adopt highly individualized measurement tools are needed to detect depressionprone individuals. To fill this research gap, it is important to develop an
University life has been found to be one of the most stressful periods in a
persons lifetime. Many studies have found that in Western countries, irrational
1.3
Given the background mentioned above, the focus of the present study was
on measuring irrational beliefs, and exploring the role of irrational beliefs in
contributing to emotional disturbances such as stress, anxiety and depression in
university students in Hong Kong. Specifically, the objectives of the study are to
enhance the understanding of:
1.
society.
2.
3.
depression and anxiety) between students of different gender, age, family income,
religion, current studying year, faculty, study program, duration of program, living
in different types of flat, and using different transportation.
The researcher holds the view that there is a demand for a specific instrument
to measure irrational beliefs, which should be culturally relevant, with good
psychometric properties. This can be applied to the investigation of the
relationship between irrational beliefs and emotional disturbance in university
students in Hong Kong. It would also serve to facilitate future empirical research
study in other Chinese societies for objective measurement, effective
communication and comparison.
10
1.4
This study has examined the irrational beliefs structure and its impact on
emotional disturbance in university students. This in turn will contribute to social
science in the following aspects:
1.
Empirical aspect
This study helps to fill the knowledge gaps in understanding the types of
irrational beliefs and their role in contributing to emotional disturbance (stress,
anxiety and depression) in university students in the context of Hong Kong
society. The development of a psychometrically sound instrument to measure
irrational beliefs among university students is able to promote more empirical
research and enhance understanding of the issues.
2.
Theoretical aspect
11
3.
Practical aspect
12
Chapter Two
Literature Review
2.1
There are many definitions of stress, each of which has a different focus.
Researchers are still disagreed as to the nature of stress (Dua, 1994.). At its
broadest, stress is encountered when one experiences conditions perceived as
endangering physical or psychological function. These conditions are usually
13
14
15
This approach can help to illustrate why the same event with the same degree
of stress level is encountered as stressful for one person, but not for another.
According to Lazarus and Folkman (1984), two fundamental processes mediate
the person-environment relationship, namely cognitive appraisal and coping.
Cognitive appraisal, the mental process of event judgment involving primary
appraisal and secondary appraisal, is a process to determine why and what
particular transaction between the person and the environment is stressful (Cohen
& Lazarus, 1983). Coping is the process whereby a person handles the demands
of the individual-environment relationship that are appraised as stressful, and the
emotions they generate.
16
(4)
17
meditation and Hatha yoga practice. Through MBSR, people are taught to observe
situations and thoughts nonjudgmentally and not react impulsively. This can help
them to create a reflexive awareness of inner and outer experiences, which
presents as an efficacious tool for stress reduction.
2.1.3
18
approach is that it does not cover physiological mechanisms nor make distinctions
clear between cause and effect.
The transactional model of stress has also received criticism. Since the
treatment of the stress response ignores the significance of sequencing and
response pattern in individuals, it is criticized for failure to apply a holistic
method to the stress process. Another criticism is that coping is not assessed
objectively, and does not account for personality characteristics and physiological
mechanisms (Sharma & Romas, 2011).
19
In fact, literature review suggests that university students face much stress.
20
21
2004). A similar situation appears to pertain in Hong Kong: in the Asian Wall
Street Journal, Ho (2000) revealed that academic stress that is faced by Hong
Kong students is increasing.
22
23
24
Clubs Association of Hong Kong, 1990). More than 80% of students cited
coursework and examinations as the greatest sources of stress (Tyrer, 2001).
A study by Kim, Won, Liu, Liu, and Kitanishi (1997) showed that academicrelated matters are the major concerns for Chinese university students. This
situation applies to post-graduate students as well as undergraduates. In fact, stress
from studies is considered the major source of stress for students, especially for
students studying in Hong Kong under the exam-oriented education system, a
system noted for its dire outcomes in some areas of student development: The
result of this exam-oriented education is a large number of weary students with
inadequate psychological development, repressed personality and self-hatred, and
a general lack in the development of other abilities (Kirkpatrick & Zang, 2011).
25
Stankov (2010) stated that Chinese students high levels of anxiety may be
attributed to the imperatives of Confucian societies. Academic success is
extremely important in the Confucian worldview and entails high expectations
imposed by students parents. Distress for students themselves is more likely to
26
follow upon academic failure. This kind of psychological pressure is more likely
to occur in Confucian than European societies (Stankov, 2013). Many studies
show that high levels of psychological distress are linked to mental disorders.
Students concern for their academic performance is highly linked to depressive
symptoms (Woo et al., 2004). Students in Confucian countries are more concerned
with their academic performance and how their family and peers evaluate them,
and this may be strongly associated with the onset of adolescent depression (Woo
et al., 2004).
Recent research from Stankov (2013) found that in comparing the levels of
depression and life satisfaction between Confucian countries and European
counterparts, Confucian countries showed higher levels of depression and lower
levels of life satisfaction. In Hong Kong, where Confucian values are the
27
unquestioned default for the Chinese majority, filial piety and modesty are highly
esteemed. Students make great efforts to satisfy the expectations of their family,
peers and society. If they cannot satisfy such expectations, negative feelings or
psychological problems may result.
Many studies reveal that one stressor for university students is career-related
issues (Carson & Runco, 1999; Murphy & Archer, 1996). Research found that
there is a relationship between anxiety and the following aspects of career
indecision, including: lack of information about self and career; being unsure if
the degree earned will fit their career; and facing specific barriers to a previous
choice (Dickinson & Tokar, 2004; Fuqua, Newman, & Seaworth, 1988; Germeijs,
Verschueren, & Soenens, 2006; Vidal-Brown & Thompson, 2001). The results
were similar to Hawkins, Bradley, and White (1977) and Mojgans findings
(2011), which found anxiety to be significantly related to the nine selected
vocationally relevant issues, including: the choice of career; the possibility of
making a wrong choice; limited employment opportunities; the fear of being
trapped in a dead-end job; the possibility of failing in their vocation; the choice of
28
a career which conflicts with family expectations; the ability of oneself to meet
the requirements of the career field; choosing a career and needing to commit it
for ones whole life; and really being on ones own and independent of ones
parents.
29
claim that Shanghai has a comparable level of competitiveness to Hong Kong, and
around 16.69 percent of students believe that Shanghai is already more
competitive than Hong Kong. They are concerned that Hong Kong might be
overtaken by other Chinese cities in the next ten years. As reported by mainland
Chinese students, most of them are willing to take a job in Hong Kong to earn
overseas working experience; this leads to increased pressure for local students, as
they perceive that more candidates will compete for jobs with them. Indeed,
mainland students are becoming more and more competitive, and there will be an
increasing number of mainland students working in Hong Kong (Choy, Lam, &
Ngai, 1990).
30
Australia, and other Asian countries (HKU). Currently, most of the universities in
Hong Kong use English as the official medium of instruction. Of the eight
universities in Hong Kong, only the Chinese University of Hong Kong has a
bilingual language policy. The Hong Kong Institute of Education has a trilingual
policy, while the other six universities all use English as the medium of instruction
(Kirkpatrick, 2011). English is one of the official languages of Hong Kong and is
widely used in the formal contexts of government, education, law and written
business communication (Gao, 2008; Peng, 2005). However, in daily living, most
of local university students communicate with each other in Cantonese, which
many mainland Chinese cannot understand; this has become a major barrier for
socialization (Evans & Morrison, 2011).
Although Hong Kong shares some similar cultural traits with mainland
China, most mainland students studying in Hong Kong still have difficulties in
their academic and daily lives because of the different ideologies and language
barriers (Zeng, 2006). Two of the common adjustment problems mainland
students often experience are academic adaptation, referring to the lack of
language proficiency in English and Cantonese, and social adaptation, referring to
peer relationships in new situations, unfamiliarity with university facilities and
31
networks, and lack of family support (Chan, 2002). Pan (2008) also stated that
mainland students invariably face problems with English in English-medium
instruction institutions. In addition, the majority of people in Hong Kong are
Chinese and think that Hong Kong and Mainland China are sibling cultures.
However, even though they share the basic similarities, there are still some
differences in some specific area like languages used and education systems.
Another strong risk factor for negative effects on mainland students is the
demands of academic work. Chinese students can experience many difficulties in
their academic work. Mainland Chinas education system emphasizes students
ability to absorb knowledge, rather than knowledge development; therefore, when
students enter universities in Hong Kong, they find they are not capable of doing
research work. They also have difficulties engaging in group discussions and class
presentations, since Chinas education system does not emphasize these aspects
(Pan, Wong, Joubert, & Chan, 2007). Furthermore, since many of the Mainland
students in Hong Kong may not be prepared psychologically for the cultural
differences between Mainland China and Hong Kong, the gap between the
expectation and reality of the sojourn is another contributory factor to stress (Pan,
2011).
32
Pan (2011) stated that cultural differences in the adaption of foreign students
are difficult for them. Their core values, lifestyles and behavioral patterns are
quite different from the local students in Hong Kong. These students have no
problem in using English as the language of instruction in studying. However,
most Hong Kong residents use Cantonese to communicate with each other in their
daily lives, and some local students are reluctant to speak English for fear of
embarrassment. As a result, they hesitate to make friends with foreign students.
Therefore, it not easy for foreign students to blend into the culture of the local
students. Lack of awareness of international students is another issue. Since
33
international students are a minority at university, they are easily ignored by local
students.
2.2
34
worldwide (WHO, 2011). In 2004, depression ranked third in the top ten disease
burdens in the world (WHO). According to the World Health Organization,
depression is a global health problem and it may be a significant cause of
mortality. WHO predicted that depression will rank second place as a cause of
death in 2020 (1995).
35
In the past, depression prevalence rates were low. Some earlier research
found depression prevalence rates of only 4.6% (Canino, Bird, & Shrout, 1987)
and 3.3% (Lee, Kwak, & Yamamoto, 1990). However, Verhey and Honig (1997)
stated that because of insensitive instruments and ambiguous diagnosis, such
results were not accurate. As people became more concerned with depression and
its impact, the instruments for measurement were better developed, such as those
in use in the DSM and WHO, which have developed standardized criteria for
diagnosis of depression as well as an accurate and proper assessment techniques.
This can facilitate a more realistic assessment of depression prevalence rates.
Depression is the most prevalent and common mental disorder in the United
States. According to Kessler (2003), about 16% of all US adults have experienced
depressive disorder in their lifetime, and 7% of people in the US were found to
have experienced depression in the past 12 months. This is similar to Hong Kong,
where a study showed that there was an 8.5% depressive disorder prevalence rate
36
in the past 12 months (Lee, Tsang, & Kwok, 2007). Moreover, females were
found to have an increased risk of depression. This is consistent with another
study which reported a significantly higher prevalence of depressive disorder in
females than in males (Lehtinen & Joukamaa, 1994). Studies showed that females
have higher levels of depression, which may be attributed to biopsychosocial
factors and physiological status (Bangasser et al., 2010; Zaid, Chan, & Ho, 2007).
This is consistent with the study by Angst (1997); because of biological and social
factors, females exhibit a two-fold greater prevalence of depression than males.
The American Psychiatric Association (2000) also showed that women are about
twice more likely than men to experience lifetime depression prevalence. In a
research study of US and Canadian medical students, female students were found
to have higher rates of psychological disorder than their male colleagues (Dyrbye,
Thomas, & Shanafelt, 2006). Females perceive events to be more stressful than
males, and females report more depression than do males (Carter, 2000; Matud,
2004). However, many studies suggest that gender differences in depression
prevalence reach zero after the age of 50.
37
38
indicated that depression and perceived stress have been correlated consistently;
greater depression has been linked to higher levels of academic stress (Dyson &
Renk, 2006). Moreover, studies reveal that there are high rates of depression,
stress and suicidal ideation among university students (Fergusson & Woodward,
2002; Heiligenstein et al., 1996). According to a study of students in local
universities, 21% of first-year university students had clinically significant
depression (Wong, Cheung, Chan, Ma, & Tang, 2006). Another similar study was
conducted afterward, and the result found that approximately 43.9 % of freshmen
in Hong Kong had significant depressive symptoms (Song el al., 2008). It was
evident that academic stress and depression are the most important problems for
university students (MacGeorge, Samter, & Gillihan, 2005; Sasaki & Yamasaki,
2007).
2.3
39
pacing back and forth, somatic complaints and rumination, similar to the tension
caused when a person subjectively feels dread over something unlikely to happen
or anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune. Kaplan and Sadock
(1996) stated that anxiety is characterized by a diffuse, unpleasant, vague sense
of apprehension, often accompanied by autonomic symptoms, such as headache,
perspiration, palpitations, tightness in the chest, and mild stomach discomfort. In
fact, anxiety, a natural human experience and reaction to perceived danger,
stimulates people to prepare for high-alert situations. All people experience
anxiety, but not all experience the same signs of anxiety in the same way. The
anxiety symptoms vary greatly.
The common mental health problems among university students are stress,
depression and anxiety (Dyrbye, Thomas, & Shanafelt, 2006), which affected
student performance and academic achievement at university (Dusselier, Dunn,
Wang, Shelley, & Whalen, 2005; Stewart-Brown et al., 2000). Many studies report
higher prevalence rates of stress, depression and anxiety in university student
populations in different countries. Bayram and Bilgel (2008) revealed the high
40
rate of stress, depression and anxiety (27%, 27.1% and 47.1%) among Turkish
university students. Recently, Shamsuddin et al. (2013) made a similar
observation of apparently high rates of stress, depression and anxiety among
Malaysian university students. The results showed that among all students, 18.6%
had moderate stress levels, and 5.1% had severe stress levels; 27.5% had
moderate depression, and 9.7% had severe depression; and 34% had moderate
anxiety, and 29% had severe anxiety. This is consistent with other studies that
show high prevalence of psychological disorders among university students
globally (Adewuya, Ola, & Afolabi, 2006; Ovuga, Boardman, & Wasserman,
2006; Wong et al., 2006). The recent increase in the number of university students
with severe health problems has been reported by experts (Bernhard, 2007).
Kessler and his colleagues (2005) found that anxiety and depression, often
combined together, are the most prevalent mental health problems. This is true
also for university student populations (Adalf, Gliksman, Demers, & NewtonTaylor, 2001). A study showed that one-year prevalence rates for Major
Depressive Disorder among the students of a Canadian university were 7% for
41
men and 14% for women; for Anxiety Disorder the rates were 13% for men and
19% for women (Price, Mcleod, Gleich, & Hand, 2006). Chinese students had
higher rates of mental health problems compared to Western students. A study
supported this phenomenon that Chinese students experienced greater anxiety
than American students, because they feared poor academic performance would
make their parents worried and disappointed (Xing et al., 2005). This is in
consistent with research by Tao (2003) that Chinese students are anxious about
how they are evaluated by other people; specifically, they are concerned about
how their academic attainment will be evaluated by their significant others. In a
survey of local university students, results suggested that they had depression,
anxiety and stress levels at moderate severity or above at rates of 21%, 41% and
27% of the participants, respectively (Wong, Cheung, Chan, Ma, & Tang, 2006).
2.4
42
respond negatively to academic stress; some may find that stress can inspire them
to work hard to achieve their goals. However, for some students, stress has a
negative impact on their health and psychological function. The correlation among
chronic illness, family life issues, academic load and poor social relationships is
quite strong (Aheneku et al., 2000; Damush, Hays, & Dimatteo, 1997). Ellis
(1962) proposed that irrational beliefs are the major factor causing emotional and
behavior disorders. According to REBT theory by Ellis, troubles experienced by a
person are not caused by particular events; instead, they are caused by a persons
evaluation of such conditions.
The literature review showed that many studies confirm the correlation
between irrational beliefs with different forms of emotional disorders in university
students. An early study by Goldfried and Sobocinski (1975) revealed that there is
a relationship between irrational beliefs and disruptive examination anxiety in
first-year female university students. Arnkoff and Smith (1988) also found a
strong inverse relationship between irrational thoughts and actual achievement in
university students. These results are consistent with William (1996), who found
that test anxiety is correlated with negative thoughts from the university students.
Similarly, the study by Kleijn, Van Der Ploeg and Topman (1994) showed that
43
negative achievement beliefs were correlated with lower GPA scores for
university students in Germany.
44
psychological function.
The name Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) was used by Ellis (1962) to
emphasize the strong role that emotional change has in his theory of personality
45
and in his clinical practice. Ellis (1993) changed the name of his theory to
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) to emphasize that it was cognitivebehavioral psychotherapy, which was inherently multi-modal in theory and
practice.
46
person changes the manner in which they think about an event, they may also
change the behavior to react to the event.
47
rationally can feel adaptive emotions, such as concern, sadness and annoyance. As
a result, a rational belief is constructive to help a person to attain his or her goal.
Some authors criticize that it may be difficulty to differentiate rational beliefs and
irrational beliefs. But theoretically, REBT states that rational beliefs have certain
characteristics; (1) flexible, (2) consistent with reality, (3) logical, and (4) yielding
of functional consequences. The following paragraphs will give more illustrations
with examples.
Dryden (2002, 2012, & 2013) has proposed four types of rational beliefs. The
first type of rational belief described by Dryden is a full preference, which
refers to flexible evaluations in the form of preferences, wishes, desires, want,
etc. (Dryden, 2002 & 2012). A person holding this belief feels that he/she wants
something, but it is not necessary to get it. For example: I wish to get an A+ in my
English test, but I dont have to get it.
48
The fourth type of rational beliefs are Acceptance Beliefs. There are three
parts of acceptance beliefs: self-acceptance, other acceptance, and life acceptance
beliefs. In REBT theory, the notion of Unconditional Self-Acceptance refers to the
situation where even if one is flawed, one would accept oneself. Unconditional
Other Acceptance describes acceptance of the shortcomings of another person.
Unconditional Life Acceptance is used to describe a persons acceptance of life
conditions. An example of self-acceptance: If I was fired, it does not mean I am a
loser.
The four characteristics of an irrational belief are described as. 1). Irrational
49
beliefs are rigid and extreme in nature; 2) Irrational beliefs tend to impede goal
attainment; 3) Irrational beliefs are illogical; 4) Irrational beliefs are also
inconsistent with reality (Dryden & Neenan, 2004; Dryden, 2012 & 2013). Ellis
(1958) proposed eleven types of irrational beliefs that lead people to become
emotionally disturbed. The original list of irrational beliefs is as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
That it is awful or catastrophic when things are not the way one would very
6.
8.
9.
behavior.
10. That one should become quite upset over other peoples problems and
50
disturbances.
11. That there is invariably a right, precise, and perfect solution to human
problems.
Rigid Demand relates to what a person believes he must have or must not
have in life. It refers to absolutist requirements expressed in terms of must,
have to, ought and should. Demands could be place under one of the three
main musts: 1) Demands about self (I must perform well); 2) Demands about
others (You must treat me kindly and considerately; (3) Demands about the
world or living conditions: The universe must make things easy for me.
51
As discussed above, students who start the journey of university study may
encounter difficulties and face many challenges in many aspects, including: (a)
intra-personally, in subjective well-being, self-concept, self-esteem, etc.; (b) interpersonally, in family values and expectation, family relations, roommate relations,
peer pressure and competiveness, and (c) extra-personally, in academic workload,
examinations, career planning, and finances. They may have irrational beliefs as
mentioned above: rigid demand, awfulizing, low frustration tolerance and global
evaluation. These absolutist and unrealistic beliefs impede problem-solving
52
abilities for goal satisfaction, and lead to negative emotions such as depression
and anxiety (Dryden, 2003; Ellis & Dryden, 1997; Walen, DiGiusepe, & Dryden,
1992).
53
irrational beliefs disputation skills can apply in different cultures since each
person is viewed as an entity in and of their cultural context (Adomeh, 2006;
Gregas, 2006). In Chinese society, Confucianism may play a role in influencing
people's beliefs in Hong Kong. It was suggested that Chinese people would prefer
a directive-based, structural counseling approach to a non-directive one. They
show great respect for authority, and prefer practical and immediate solutions to
problems in counseling. (Leong, 1986; Sue & Sue, 1990). As REBT is open to
diverse cultures with fruitful outcomes, many studies also show that REBT can
appropriately be used in the Chinese context (Si & Lee, 2008; Yang, Li, Jiang, &
Xu, 2007; Yu & Fu, 2014).
Despite the above, there are many weaknesses in REBT. One criticism is that
REBT carries negative connotations, in particular by using the words irrational
beliefs. Indeed, irrationality can be considered by some people to be a sign of
low intelligence or lack of maturity (Turner & Barker, 2013). Corey (2009)
describes REBT as the active and directive approach used to treat a variety of
discords, such as depression, anxiety and phobias. However, in view of its
negative connotations, some people from certain racial or ethnic backgrounds may
not be willing to disclose their thinking or feelings (Shen, Alden, Schting, &
54
Tsang, 2006). As a result, this approach may be too counterproductive for certain
people. In Chinese culture, people are afraid of losing face, and reluctant to
disclose personal feelings and emotions, preferring to adhere to social norms and
avoid harming interpersonal relationships and harmony. They tend to believe in an
external locus of control (e.g. fate and luck) (Leung, 1996; Lin, 2002). These
seem to be barriers in conducting REBT counseling. But the literature suggested
that REBT can be successful in Chinese society if it is practiced with some
modifications and specific skills. Firstly, the counselor needs to be aware of the
influence from multiple levels of social organization and integrate a variety of
external sources to bring a positive impact. For instance, extended family
members are a good source for providing help and support to Chinese clients.
Secondly, in dealing with negative feelings and emotions as well as sensitive
issues (e.g. sexual problems, family relationships), clarification is needed to let
them feel genuine caring and support (Chen & Davenport, 2005; Lin, 2002;
Molassiotis, Yung, Yam, Chan, & Mok, 2002).
55
56
Ellis (1994) stated that irrational belief is the crucial factor underlying
emotional disturbance. Over fifty scales have been developed to measure
irrational thinking processes. They are based on the eleven irrational beliefs of
Elliss early theory of REBT. During the early period, the scales of irrational
beliefs included: Irrational Ideas (II; Zingle, 1965), the Personal Beliefs Inventory
(PBI; Hartman, 1968), Irrational Belief Test (IBT; Jones, 1968), Personality Data
Form (Ellis, 1968), the Adult Irrational Ideas Inventory (AIII; Fox & Davis,
1971), the Ellis Scale (McDonald& Games, 1972), Common Beliefs Survey-III
(CBS-III; Bessai, 1977), Idea Inventory (Kassinove, Crisci, & Tiegerman, 1977)
and Rational Beliefs Inventory (RBI; Shorkey & Whiteman, 1977). Many studies
found that the early measurements of irrational beliefs lack discriminant validity.
Most of them correlated with measures of emotional distress, rather than the
targeted irrational beliefs that are presumed to lead to affective states (Smith,
1982; Madigan & Bollenback, 1986).
57
between irrationality and general emotional distress, and they could reflect Elliss
recent model of three major musts and four derivatives. However, the
shortcoming is that the subscales of identifying the particular irrational beliefs
could not be validated clinically. These scales included: Situational Self-Statement
and Affective State Inventory (SSSASI; Harrell, Chambless, & Calhoun, 1981),
Irrational Belief Scale (IBS; Malouff & Schuttle, 1986), Child and Adolescent
Scale of Irrationality (CASI; Bernard & Law, 1987), Teacher Irrational Belief
Scale (TIBS; Bernard, 1988), Survey of Personal Beliefs (SPB; Demaria,
Kassinove, & Dill, 1989), Irrational Beliefs Survey (IBS; Watson, Vassar, Plemel,
Herder, Manifold,& Anderson, 1990), Ellis Emotional Efficiency Inventory
(EEEI; Ellis, 1992), Irrational Beliefs Inventory (IBI; Koopmans, Sanderman,
Timmerman, & Emmeikamp, 1994), Camatta & Nagoshi Scale (Camatta &
Nagoshi, 1995), Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory (PCI; Flett, Hewitt,
Blankstein, & Gray, 1998), Evaluative Beliefs Scale (EBS; Chadwick, Trower, &
Dagnan, 1999), Smith Irrational Beliefs Inventory (SIBI; Smith, 2002), and
General Attitude & Belief Scale (GABS), which was developed by Burgess
(1986), and modified by DiGiuseppe, Leaf, Exner, and Robin (1988), and revised
to an abbreviated version of the GABS by Lindner, Kirkby, Wertheim, and Birch.
(1999).
58
59
Moreover, even though there are existing scales for the measurement of
university students, they are not for Chinese students and not fit for Chinese
culture or the environment and situation in Hong Kong. For example, Egan,
Canale, Del Rosario, and White (2007) have developed a new instrument which is
called Academic Rational Beliefs Scale, a specific measure of the trait (ARBS) for
evaluating academic beliefs among university students along a rational-irrational
continuum. The participants were undergraduate and graduate students at a MidAtlantic college, and the sample consisted of around 85% white and 15% minority
students. The culture of Western society is quite different from Chinese society, so
the statements or items of this scale could not give the whole picture of a Chinese
students thought. To an extent that differs from Western society, Chinese students
in Confucian countries place success in academic life, future and career as their
top concerns, which are rooted in the societal and cultural values of Chinese
society (Stankov, 2010). In addition, compared to other cultural groups, Confucian
countries are highly concerned about how they are evaluated by their families,
relatives, and peers with respect to their academic achievement and future career
prospects (Woo et al., 2004). Because of the concept of face, they are distressed
at the prospect of failure in examinations, poor academic achievement, or being
unable to get an internship to enhance future career prospects, as such failures
60
would cause loss of face for their parents. As a result, they may feel sad, or have
more negative emotions. They may also feel ashamed if the worst comes to pass.
A study from Shek, Yu, and Fu (2013) found that filial piety remains a very strong
force in modern Chinese society. Obligation and expectation fulfilled toward the
parents can show that one is filial. In such circumstances, students are expected
to follow their parents opinions and ideas on academic issues, such as choosing
the study major, applying to which university, or deciding their career path.
Moreover, men and womens behavior is governed by Confucian beliefs, which
emphasize that a person should act in accordance with the expectations of their
role and position in society (Tang & Chua, 2010). Peoples behaviors are expected
to conform to traditional standards of Chinese cultural value, and there is a
traditional Chinese concept to segregate the role and position of men and women,
which is men for the exterior, women for the interior. This gender role
stereotype plays an important role in family life in Chinese societies, where mens
responsibility is for dominance in decision making and women take responsibility
for caring and supporting family members (Sun, 2008). Hence, men are expected
to work and earn money to fulfill the role of breadwinner for the family. It is
believed that higher educational achievement is an advantage that will enable
earning more money and providing a better quality of living for the family.
61
In summary, the available instruments are not proper for the present study
because the dimension of the scales is mainly for the assessment of students
experiencing academic difficulties, and they are not culturally contextually
specific to Hong Kong Chinese society. Because of the lack of the suitable
measurement in irrational beliefs of Chinese students, it is worthwhile developing
a new instrument for assessing Chinese students beliefs among students studying
at Hong Kong University.
62
depression, anxiety and stress. The central theme of this model is that it is the
irrational beliefs about the event (starting the university study journey) that cause
the emotional disturbance and dysfunctional behaviors that hinder goal
attainment.
After starting studying at a university, the student starts the journey towards
adjustment to his or her new life role. In respect of adjustment to university study,
the individual faces challenges in (a) intra-personal functioning (e.g., health,
psychological or subjective well-being, self-concept or self-esteem); (b) interpersonal functioning (e.g. family relations, peer pressure and competitiveness,
peer relations, social activities); and (c) extra-personal functioning (e.g. course
workload, recreational pursuits, career planning, time management and finances).
As discussed, students who start studying in a university may find attainment of
their goals frustrated by the events of university life. For instance, they may
experience exam failure or receive an unsatisfactory grade. The process of rational
reasoning is distorted by the biological pressures of their innate goals and the
tendency to over-generalize and to be motivated by short-term hedonism. They
may have irrational beliefs involving self-depreciation, and dogmatic beliefs
entailing demands for approval, success, and fair treatment, together with
63
demands for satisfying life conditions. These absolutist and unrealistic beliefs
impede problem-solving abilities for goal satisfaction and lead to negative
emotions such as depression, anxiety and guilt, and to self-defeating behaviors
(Ellis & Dryden, 1987). In other words, if university students harbour irrational
beliefs, it will cause emotional and behavioral consequences, and impede the
pursuit of fundamental and primary innate goals at the individual, inter-personal
and extra-personal levels. This leads the individual to psychological distress
(anxiety and depression, etc.), adversely affects inter-personal functioning
(isolating self from others, etc.), and hinders extra-personal functioning
(withdrawal from work, etc.).
64
2.5
65
anxiety. Therefore, based on REBT theory and previous research findings, the
second goal is to test our hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and
Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students. Based on the literature review,
three structural models were hypothesized and tested.
66
and anxiety, and z3 tests the correlation between irrational beliefs and stress.
67
Depression
X1
Irrational
X2
Anxiety
Beliefs
Rigid Demand
X3
Demand
Awfulizing Beliefs
Stress
Global Evaluation
Rational Beliefs
Figure 2.1 The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students (Model A)
68
Depression
Y1
Irrational
Y2
Anxiety
Beliefs
Y3
Stress
Figure 2.2 The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students (Model B)
Depression
Z1
Irrational
Z2
Beliefs
Anxiety
Z3
Stress
Figure 2.3 The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students (Model C)
69
In this research, the socio-demographic factors refer to age, religion, gender and
family income. The academic-related factors include faculty, study program, duration
of program and current year. The living environment and transportation variables are
composed of types of accommodation and living area. Theoretically, students may
have different levels of irrational beliefs due to exposure to different contexts in the
socio-demographic, academic-related and environmental factors acting upon him or
her (Lake, 2000; Macavei & Mircea, 2008; Peden, Rayens, Hall, & Grant, 2004;
Ripamonti, Steca, Preti, & Baroni, 2009; Sheehy & Horan, 2004). It is believed that
people with more irrational beliefs are more likely to have higher level of stress,
depression or anxiety. It is also hypothesized that some variables can be directly
linked to emotional disturbance without the influence of irrational beliefs, as some of
the literature findings suggest. In fact, some variables can influence irrational beliefs,
but not emotional disturbance.
70
phase two of the study, involving a 655-student sample, the CIBRAS with 5-factor
solution was tested with CFA to evaluate construct validity and to investigate the
relationship between irrational beliefs and emotional disturbance. In sum, the
following research questions are proposed:
Research question RQ1: What are the psychometric properties of the CIBRAS?
Research question RQ2: What are the relationships between irrational beliefs,
depression, anxiety and stress?
Hypothesis 2b: Depression, anxiety and stress would have significant positive effects
on irrational beliefs (Model B).
71
Hypothesis 2c: Depression, anxiety stress and irrational beliefs would have significant
bidirectional relationships (Model C).
Research question RQ3: Are there any interaction effects (gender x faculty), (faculty x
current year), and (gender x current year) on irrational beliefs and depression, anxiety
and stress?
Hypothesis 3c: There would be interaction effects (gender x current year) on irrational
beliefs and depression, anxiety and stress.
Research question RQ4: Are there any significant differences in the mean scores of
irrational beliefs and depression, anxiety and stress between socio-demographic
variables (gender, age, religion and family income), between academic-related
72
variables (faculty, study program, duration of program and current year), and between
living environment and transportation variables (family status, place of living, living
space and public transportation)?
Hypothesis 4a: There would be significant differences in the mean scores of irrational
beliefs and depression, anxiety and stress between socio-demographic variables
(gender, age, religion and family).
Hypothesis 4b: There would be significant differences in the mean scores of irrational
beliefs and depression, anxiety and stress between academic-related variables (faculty,
study program, duration of program and current year).
Hypothesis 4c: There would be significant differences in the mean scores of irrational
beliefs and depression, anxiety and stress between living environment and
transportation variables (family status, place of living and public transportation).
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Chapter Three
3.1
Introduction
There are two phases of this study. To address the first goal of this study,
phase I was construction of the Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational Attitude
Scale (CIBRAS) for university students, based on extensive literature review and
expert panel comments. It was then finalized by a pilot test of 200 HKU students,
so as to establish psychometric properties and probe factor structure by
exploratory factor analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was carried out in phase
II to confirm the construct validity of CIBRAS. To address the second goal of this
study, the main study of 655 HKU students was conducted in phase II to
investigate the relationship between irrational beliefs and emotional disturbance
(stress, depression and anxiety) by structural equation modeling. Finally, to
address the third goal of this study, the interaction effects and group differences
between irrational beliefs and depression, anxiety, and stress among the variables
of socio-demographic, academic-related and environmental aspects were
examined by MANOVA, ANOVA and Independent Sample t-test.
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3.2
Established in 1911, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is the oldest and
most prestigious tertiary institution in Hong Kong. The official language of
instruction is English. It was ranked 28th in the world university rankings and 2nd
in the Asia university rankings by QS World University Rankings (2014).
HKU can trace its origins to the former Hong Kong College of Medicine for
Chinese, established in 1887, which became the Medical Faculty of the university.
HKU was officially founded in 1911 by Governor Sir Frederick Lugard, with a
mission to extend British influence in the mainland China market. Gradually, as
the Hong Kong economy became diversified and increasingly prosperous, there
was an urgent need to educate more people to acquire knowledge of western and
Chinese culture (Cunich, 2012).
75
to receive large budgets from government funding on the advice of the University
Grants Committee (UGC).
HKU was the only university in Hong Kong for some decades, and thus its
alumni are frequently found in senior positions in business, government and
professional sectors in the city. Over 40 principal officials, permanent secretaries,
and Executive Council members of the HKSAR government are alumni of the
university (Sweeting, 1999).
HKU is located on Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. The newly opened Mass
Transit Railway (MTR) HKU Station is directly connected to the campus on 28
December 2014. Students used to rely on other methods of transportation, such as
buses or mini buses, prior to the opening of the MTRs HKU station. Bus was the
main public transportation for students getting to the campus, but only a few bus
lines passed the campus directly. From the Hong Kong side, the direct bus links to
the campus included buses nos. 23 and 40, which departed from North Point and
Wan Chai, respectively. It took around 30 minutes to get to the campus. Students
76
living on Hong Kongs east side and far away from North Point needed to transfer
among different forms of transportation, such as taking the MTR to the North
Point station before changing to a bus to go to the campus; alternatively, they
could switch between a combination of bus routes. From Kowloon West, which
includes from Tsim Sha Tsiu to Cheung Sha Wan, students could take bus nos. 970
or 973, which were direct bus links to the campus. However, this required a long
journey, of around an hour or so, to the campus. Students living in Kowloon East
were particularly inconvenienced, as there were no direct bus links from that area
to the campus, and switching between multiple transportation forms or routes was
a necessity. The same situation pertained for students living in the New
Territories. Hence, until the recent completion of the direct MTR link, many
students may have considered the location of HKU inconvenient, as there were
few direct public transport links, and such links as did exist served only limited
areas.
HKU has ten faculties, namely Architecture, Arts, Business and Economics,
Dentistry, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science, and Social Sciences.
77
All faculties offer undergraduate and postgraduate programs for students. The
duration of the program for an undergraduate is around three to six years, and for
postgraduates is around two to four years, depending on the criteria of the faculty
and the mode of study. In the academic year 2012-2013 or beforehand, most of the
students with HKALE and equivalent qualifications were admitted to the 3-year
curriculum, except for programs which were of 4-year or 5-year duration; 4-year
curricula included the Bachelor of Laws, Bachelor of Science in Speech and
Hearing Science, Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Education in Language
Education, Bachelor of Education in Liberal Studies, and some of the double
degrees which were jointly offered by different faculties. The 5-year curricula
included the Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, and
Bachelor of Chinese Medicine. However, after the reform of undergraduate
education under the 334 academic structure in 2012, most students with
HKDSE qualifications entered the new 4-year curriculum (previously the 3-year
curriculum). Some students are admitted to 5-year programs, such as the Bachelor
of Science in Speech and Hearing Science, Bachelor of Nursing, and some of the
double degrees which are jointly offered by different faculties. A small number of
students enter the 6-year undergraduate curricula, for the Bachelor of Dental
Surgery, Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, or Bachelor of Chinese Medicine.
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Students are provided with different kinds of facilities and services, such as
accommodation, amenities, computing services, banking services, libraries, postal
service, campus bus services, a student cooperative and student support services.
Full-time undergraduate students can apply for admission to residential halls each
year. Presently, there are thirteen residential halls, which are located near the
campus. The availability of the shuttle bus service is for students travelling
between the dental campus, main campus, medical campus, student halls and the
Sports Centre; the fare is $2. Bus or minibus provides other public transportation
for students to travel between the halls and other locations. As regards student
support services, The Centre of Development and Resources for Students
(CEDARS) provides students with the necessary support services and resources to
facilitate study. It delivers a variety of services to students. One of these is the
career services for students to develop independent learning and professional
skills to support the launch of a rewarding career. Another important service
provided by CEDARS is the counseling and psychological service, which
provides a team of counselors and psychologists to handle students personal
problems and emotional distress, as well as exploring student potential, nurturing
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3.3
Ethical considerations
This research study was approved by the Ethics Committees of the Faculty of
Education, the University of Hong Kong. The purpose of this study was explained
in the Research Consent Form. The survey was anonymous. All the data was kept
confidential following the survey and stored strictly on computer with double
safety measures. Participation was on a voluntary basis, and the participants were
informed that they were free to withdraw from the study at any time without any
negative consequences. After reading the written explanation, the participants
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3.4
Research design
(I)
81
university study.
Inclusion criteria
The inclusion criteria of expert panel included (1) full time academic staff
(lecturers or professors) (2) having teaching experience with HKU students
(3) adequate knowledge in questionnaires survey. They were invited by the
researcher via their emails in the academic departments.
II.
Participants
12 academic staff including 8 males and 4 females from nine different
faculties of the University of Hong Kong accepted our invitation. There were four
associate professors, six assistant professors and two lecturers from the
Department of Social Work and Social Administration, Psychology, Psychiatry,
Physics, Education, Economics and Finance, Dentistry, the School of Chinese,
and Politics and Public Administration.
82
III
Instruments
A self-constructed panel review form was used (see Appendix A). This
served to facilitate the panel members to evaluate the draft CIBRAS in terms of
relevance, clarity and representativeness. The panel were invited to express their
opinions by adding or deleting items for the CIBRAS.
IV. Analysis
The content validity index was calculated based on the representativeness of
the measure by counting the number of experts who rated the items as three or
four and dividing that number by the total number of experts who deemed the
item as content valid (Rubio, Berg-Weger, Tebb, Lee, & Rauch, 2003).
I.
Participants
The researcher went into classrooms to collect questionnaires from Chinese
83
II.
Instruments
A self-constructed questionnaire consisting of a personal information sheet
III. Analysis
Firstly, Cronbachs alpha coefficient of the scales was used to determine the
reliability of the instrument. Secondly, item-total-correlation analysis was
conducted to purify the assessment prior to considering the factors representing
the construct (Churchill, 1979). Thirdly, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was
performed to test the factor structure. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartletts
test of sphericity were conducted to examine whether the sample was factorable or
not. Our criterion for item retention was to preserve only items that loaded greater
than 0.4 on the factor component, and there are at least three items in each factor
(Costello & Osborn, 2005).
84
(I)
Participants
85
about 4% of student population in that faculty based on their actual student intake
in 2012-2013 (Table 3.1).
Undergraduate Student
Intake in 2012-2013
608
1,742
2,836
321
903
1,971
703
2,936
2,129
1,411
15,560
Proportion (4.2%)
26
73
119
14
38
83
30
123
90
59
655
(II) Instruments
Two instruments together with one personal information sheet containing
various variables was used (see Appendix C). The details of each instrument are
86
introduced as follows:
(a) Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995)
The DASS-21 is a self-rating scale with good psychometric properties used
in both clinical and community samples, which has been demonstrated to
differentiate the three states of depression, anxiety and stress (Crawford & Henry,
2003; Uncu, Bayram, & Bilgel, 2007). Items on the DASS are rated on 4-point
Likert type, ranging from 0 (did not apply to me at all) to 3 (applied to me very
much, or most of the time). Higher scores on each subscale indicate higher levels
of depression, anxiety and stress separately.
87
psychometric properties.
88
89
confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the instrument. A twoway MANOVA was conducted to examine the interaction effects (gender x
faculty), (faculty x current year), and (gender x current year) on the dependent
variables, including depression, anxiety, stress, rigid demand, awfulizing beliefs,
low frustration tolerance, global evaluation and rational beliefs. One-way ANOVA
and Independent Sample t-test were conducted to compare of mean scores in
irrational beliefs and emotional disturbance by socio-demographic variables,
academic-related variables and living environment and transportation variables.
ANOVA was performed if there were three or more groups to compare, while
Independent Sample t-test was used if there were only two groups to compare.
LISREL 8.8 for Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate if it fits
the hypothesized model of irrational beliefs and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for
university students by several statistical tests.
There are several fit indices used to show the adequacy of the model
examined in the CFA and SEM. A variety of indices for testing the CFA and SEM
were suggested by researchers (Marsh, Balla, & McDonald, 1988; Ullman, 1996).
Recommended by Milfont and Duckitt (2004), several fit statistics in the
structural equation model should be claimed to justify the fitness of the model.
90
The most commonly used indices include Normed Chi-Square (NC), Comparative
Fit Index (CFI), Normal Fit Index (NFI), Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI), Root
Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) and Root Mean Square Residual
(RMSR).
NNFI, RMSEA and CFI, while Kline (2005) had similar suggestions, but claimed
that the Chi-Square test should also be reported. The Chi-squared test is a
fundamental measure of fit used in the calculation of many other fit measures. It is
conceptually a function of the sample size and the difference between the
observed covariance matrix and the model covariance matrix. Based on the
guidelines and the above review, the following indices were tested for CFA and
SEM: Chi-Square statistic, its degrees of freedom and p-value, Normed ChiSquare (NC), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Normed Fit Index (NFI), NonNormed Fit Index (NNFI), Incremental Fit Index (IFI), Root Mean Square Error
of Approximation (RMSEA) and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual
(SRMR).
Different opinions were suggested about the cut-off points of model fit
indices for the model acceptances (Hu &Bentler, 1999; Marsh, Balla, &
McDonald, 1988; Sun, 2005). Also, the value of acceptable model fit indices
91
should also consider other model characteristics, for instance, the sample size and
observed variables.
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Chapter Four
4.1
Construction of CIBRAS
Construction of CIBRAS
4.1.1 Introduction
This section described the draft of the CIBRAS based on the extensive
literature review, the items extracted from the existing instruments as well as the
researchers observation and experience at university. Finally, the expert panel
comments are reported at the end of this chapter.
The item pool of the draft CIBRAS included items suggested from literature
review and items extracted from existing instruments. The extensive literature
review (Bernard & Law, 1987; Camatta & Nagoshi, 1995; Ellis, 1968; Malouff &
Schuttle, 1986; McDonald & Games, 1972; Smith, 2002), yielded 12 belief items.
An additional 20 irrational beliefs were extracted from the existing instruments
(e.g. Irrational Beliefs Inventory (IBI; Koopmans et al., 1994), Irrational Beliefs
93
Test (IBT; Jones, 1968), General Attitude& Belief Scale (GABS; DiGiuseppe et
al., 1988) and Idea Inventory (Kassinove et al., 1977)), and another 5 items of
irrational beliefs came from the researchers observation and experience in
university. Based on REBT, the total of 37 items was contributed to the pool of the
CIBRAS, and were classified in five subscales which measure irrational beliefs.
The result is shown in Table 4.1.
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Table 4.1 Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational Attitude Scale (CIBRAS) - 37 items
Subscale
Questions
Rigid Demand
2. I must get good grades.
4. I should perform remarkably in academic work, and this is the
way to make myself feel useful.
6. I must graduate with satisfactory performance to meet my
parents' expectations.
19. I ought to have a good GPA so as to succeed in the future.
22. Getting a good grade is the only way to get approval from
others.
25. I should be angry with those students with poor motivation
and studying attitude.
28. I must be accepted by other students.
Awfulizing Beliefs
No. of items
7 items
8 items
6 items
Global Evaluation
8 items
Rational Beliefs
8 items
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12 experts were invited to be panel reviewers for comments and scoring. All
of them are academic staff (8 male and 4 female) in HKU from 9 faculties,
including 2 from Psychology, 2 from Social Work and Social Administration, 2
from Politics and Public Administration, 1 from Psychiatry, 1 from Dentistry, 1
from Education, 1 from Economics & Finance, 1 from Science, and 1 from Arts.
The comments and scoring from the expert panels showed satisfactory
results. The panel had to rate the items on a 4-point Likert Scale regarding item
relevancy, clarity and representativeness. They were invited to express their
opinions by adding or deleting items, or making modification and
recommendations, if any. The average scores demonstrated that the items were
highly relevant, clear and representative.
Some experts returned the rating scales without any comments; others
included suggestions and opinions in the rating form. The Content-Validity Index
(CVI) was used to measure content validity. To calculate the CVI of each item, the
number of experts who rated the item as three (needed minor revision) or four
96
(relevant) was divided by the total number of experts. The CVI measure is used to
calculate the average scores across items. According to Davis (1992), the
recommendation of a CVI of 0.80 is for new measures. The result will be reported
in detail in the coming section.
The CVI for evaluating the content relevance, clarity and representativeness
of each item of the draft CIBRAS by academic staff is showed in Table 4.2. After
calculation, the overall CVI scores of relevance, clarity and representativeness
obtained were high, at 0.96, 0.94 and 0.94, respectively. As for content relevance,
26 of the 37 items had CVI value of 1.0; 8 items had CVI value of 0.92; 2 items
had CVI value of 0.83; and 1 item had CVI value of 0.75. For clarity, 19 of the 37
items had a value of 1.0; 11 items had a value of 0.92; 6 items had a value of 0.83;
and 1 item had a value of 0.75. For domain representativeness, a total of 18 items
obtained a value of 1.0; 12 items obtained a value of 0.92; 5 items obtained a
value of 0.83; and 2 items obtained a value of 0.75.
All items had CVI on relevance, clarity and representativeness >0.80, except
97
items 5 and 36. With respect to item 5, only the domain clarity had value >0.8;
relevance and representativeness only reached a value of 0.75, which is less than
the recommended level of >0.8. This is similar to the case for item 36, where the
domain relevance had value >0.80, while clarity and representativeness had values
of 0.75. However, it was suggested that these two items be kept in this scale, and
some modifications for these items were recommended by experts. As a result, all
of the 37 items were retained, and some were slightly changed in their wording or
phrasing according to recommendations by experts to improve clarity, relevance
and representativeness. Modifications made according to the suggestions of the
experts are shown in Appendix B.
98
Table 4.2 CVI rating of CIBRAS on relevance, clarity and representativeness by 12 experts
Item
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
Over all CVI scores
Relevance
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.75
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.92
1.00
1.00
0.92
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.92
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.92
0.92
1.00
1.00
0.92
0.92
0.83
0.92
1.00
0.83
1.00
0.96
Clarity
1.00
1.00
0.92
0.92
0.83
0.92
0.92
0.83
1.00
0.83
0.92
1.00
1.00
0.92
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.92
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.92
1.00
1.00
0.92
0.83
0.83
0.92
0.92
0.75
0.83
0.94
Representativeness
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.75
1.00
1.00
0.92
0.92
0.92
0.83
0.92
0.92
0.83
0.92
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.92
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.92
0.92
0.92
0.83
1.00
1.00
0.92
0.92
0.83
0.83
1.00
0.75
1.00
0.94
99
The comments and scoring from the expert panel showed satisfactory results,
with items being evaluated as highly relevant, clear and representative. After
establishing the content validity of the draft CIBRAS through examination from
REBT perspectives, panel review and content validity index, the next step was to
validate the instrument in a pilot test and probe the factor structure by exploratory
factor analysis. The next section will present the results regarding the
psychometric properties of the CIBRAS.
4.2
4.2.1 Introduction
This section is divided into two parts. The first part of this section describes
the subject characteristics along demographic, academic-related and living
environment and transportation variables. It then presents the results of the factor
structure of CIBRAS, and reliability and validity of CIBRAS and DASS. A
correlation study will also be reported. A summary is given at the end of this
100
section.
101
Kowloon, and 58 (29%) in the New Territories. There were 155 subjects (77.5%)
without a religion, and 45 (22.5%) with a religion. 26 subjects (59.1%) were
Protestant, 9 subjects (20.5%) were Catholic, 5 subjects (11.4%) were Buddhists,
and 4 subjects indicated other. Only one subject (0.5%) reported that the family
income depended on government funding (CSSA) for daily living. As regards
gross family income, 8 subjects (4.3%) fell into the income range HK$5,000HK$10,000; 42 subjects (22.3%) within HK$10,001HK$20,000; 42 subjects
(22.3%) within HK$20,001HK$30,000; and 31 subjects (16.5%) within
HK$30,001HK$40,000. There were 4 subjects (2.1%) who had family gross
income below HK$5,000 and 60 subjects (31.9%) above HK$40,000.
102
89
111
44.5
55.5
29
51
30
41
28
21
14.5
25.5
15.0
20.5
14.0
10.5
1
199
0.5
99.5
99
43
58
49.5
21.5
29.0
173
21
6
86.5
10.5
3.0
155
45
77.5
22.5
26
9
5
4
59.1
20.5
11.4
9.1
1
4
8
42
42
31
60
0.5
2.1
4.3
22.3
22.3
16.5
31.9
103
All 200 subjects come from ten different faculties in HKU, including 20
subjects (10%) from Architecture, 20 (10%) from Arts, 20 (10%) from Business
and Economics, 20 (10%) from Dentistry, 20 (10%) from Education, 20 (10%)
from Engineering, 20 (10%) from Law, 20 (10%) from Medicine, 20 (10%) from
Science, and 20 (10%) from Social Science. Among them, 37 students (18.5%)
were in the BA program, 23 (11.5%) were in the BSc program, 18 (9%) were in
the BEcon program, 20 (10%) were in the BDS program, 20 (10%) were in the
BSSc program, 19 (9.5%) were in the BEd program, 20 (10%) were in the BEng
program, 20 (10%) were in the LLB program, 20 (10%) were in the BBiomedSc
program, and only 3 students (1.5%) were in the BBA program. Most students
were studying 4- and 5-year programs, with N=108 (54%) and N=51 (25.5%),
respectively. Others (N=41, 20.5%) were studying in a 3-year program. Moreover,
the largest number of students (N=83, 41.5%) were in third-year study; some
students (N=53, 26.5%) were studying in second year; 40 students (20%) were
first-year students; 23 students (11.5%) were fourth-year students; and only 1
student (0.5 %) was in fifth-year study. The details were shown in Table 4.4.
104
Architecture
20
10.0
Arts
20
10.0
20
10.0
Dentistry
20
10.0
Education
20
10.0
Engineering
20
10.0
Law
20
10.0
Medicine
20
10.0
Science
20
10.0
Social Science
20
10.0
BA
37
18.5
BSc
23
11.5
BEcon
18
9.0
BBA
1.5
BDS
20
10.0
BEd
19
9.5
BSSc
20
10.0
BEng
20
10.0
LLB
20
10.0
BBiomedSc
20
10.0
3 years
41
20.5
4 years
108
54.0
5 years
51
25.5
First-year
40
20.0
Second-year
53
26.5
Third-year
83
41.5
Fourth-year
23
11.5
Fifth-year
0.5
Faculty
Study Program
Duration of program
Current Year
105
Fifty subjects (25%) were living alone, and others (150 subjects, 75%) were
living with family members. 5 subjects (4.2) had only one family member, 34
(28.6%) had two family members, many students (54, 45.4%) had three family
members, 17 subjects (14.3%) had four family members, 8 (6.7%) had five family
members, and only one student (0.8%) had six family members. Fifty-three
students (30.5%) were living in U Hall. 41 students (23.6%) shared a flat with
others, and 80 students (46%) indicated other. Most of the subjects (151
persons, 75.9%) found their living space sufficient, and only 48 subjects (24.1%)
found it insufficient. 145 subjects (72.9%) reported that public transport was
convenient, while others (54 subjects, 27.1%) reported that public transport was
inconvenient. The details are shown in Table 4.5.
106
Living alone
50
25
150
75
4.2
34
28.6
54
45.4
17
14.3
6.7
0.8
53
41
80
30.5
23.6
46.0
151
48
75.9
24.1
145
54
72.9
27.1
Family Status
Family members
Place of Living
U hall
Share flat
Other
Living Space
Enough
Not enough
Public Transport
Convenient
Inconvenient
107
4.3
Factor Analysis
108
109
Our criterion for item retention was to preserve only items that loaded greater
than 0.4 on the factor component (Corley, Elswick, Gorman, & Clor, 2000). This
resulted in deletion of 12 items, namely items 7, 9, 10, 13, 16, 18, 22, 26, 27, 28,
34, and 36.
In addition, some items were considered for deletion when they showed
double loading on different factors. Item 11 was excluded because of double
loading on two different factors. With respect to item 1, the loading on factor 3
was lower than 0.40; the article by Costello and Osborn (2005) stated that if a
110
factor is less than three items, it is often unsteady and faint. As a result, item 1 was
kept in factor 3 for further analysis. The factor loadings of each item are presented
in Table 4.7.
111
Table 4.7 Factor loading on the items of CIBRAS in the five factors
item
8
11
23
24
29
30
32
33
35
37
1
I am a failure when I fail to achieve my goals.
My future prospect will be hopeless if I cannot achieve good grades in the
university.
If I do not perform well at an important task, I am a worthless person.
Failing in the examinations makes me feel ashamed.
I feel like I am a stupid person when I dont do as well as my friends.
When another student rejects me, it's bad, but not the end of the world.
I do not like failure in a test, but I can tolerate not doing well.
If I fail my family expectation, it does not mean that I am worthless.
It is annoying but not devastating to be criticized.
I want fair treatment. However, I do realize that I may not be treated fairly
all of the time even though I want to be.
1
12
14
19
20
21
31
4
6
Factor
3
0.648
0.628
0.663
0.592
0.567
0.523
0.762
0.698
0.772
0.723
0.648
0.26
0.759
0.623
0.727
0.666
0.711
0.539
0.559
0.681
0.459
112
After removing those items, the remaining 19 items were examined by the
EFA again. The KMO and Bartletts test of sphericity were 0.806 and 1138.355,
respectively, with p<0.000, showing that the correlation matrix is factorable. The
percentage of the total variance explained by the five factors increased from
52.8% to 60.1%.
The results of EFA showed that five factors of CIBRAS, items 2, 4, 6 and 19,
belong to factor one, Rigid Demand; items 1, 12 and 14 are categorized into
factor two, with the proposed name Awfulizing Beliefs. Items 20, 21 and 31 are
clustered into factor three, under Low Frustration Tolerance. Items 8, 23, 24 and
29 belong to factor four, Global Evaluation. Factor five, named Rational
Beliefs, includes items 30, 32, 33, 35 and 37. In all, 19 items in five factors
remained in the scale. The 5 factors, 19 items and their factor loadings are
presented in Table 4.8.
Based on the EFA result, the factor structure of the CIBRAS was further
examined in the main study using confirmatory factory analysis (CFA).
113
Table 4.8 Factor loading on the items CIBRAS selected to be included in the five factors
item
2
RD
I must get good grades.
I should perform remarkably in academic work, and this is the way to make
myself feel useful.
0.87
0.71
0.59
19
0.76
1
12
14
20
21
31
8
23
24
29
30
32
33
35
When another student rejects me, it's bad, but not the end of the world.
I do not like failure in a test, but I can tolerate not doing well.
If I fail my family expectation, it does not mean that I am worthless.
It is annoying but not devastating to be criticized.
I want fair treatment. However, I do realize that I may not be treated fairly all
of the time even though I want to be.
37
AB
Factor
LFT
GE
RB
0.42
0.82
0.55
0.72
0.79
0.42
0.61
0.81
0.58
0.67
0.69
0.69
0.71
0.63
0.61
RD=Rigid Demand; AB=Awfulizing Beliefs; LFT=Low Frustration Tolerance; GE=Global Evaluation; RB=Rational Beliefs
114
115
Alpha
DASS
Depression
Anxiety
Stress
CIBRAS
0.831
0.878
0.737
0.848
0.92
Alpha
0.756
0.765
0.721
0.802
0.648
116
4.4
Chapter Summary
117
Chapter Five
5.1
5.1.1 Introduction
This section consists of three parts. The first part explains the characteristics
of the students, including socio-demographic variables, academic-related
variables and environmental and transportation variables (section 5.1). The second
part explains the psychometric properties of CIBRAS (section 5.2). The third part
explains the interaction effects and group differences between irrational beliefs
and depression, anxiety, and stress among socio-demographic variables,
academic-related variables, and living environment and transportation variables,
(section 5.3), as well as the predictive relationship between irrational beliefs and
emotional disturbance (section 5.4).
A total of 655 questionnaires was collected between January 2015 and March
118
2015. The researcher was permitted to come into classrooms to collect the data.
The questionnaires were collected from a total of 25 classes, selected from 10
faculties in HKU.
119
other. Eleven subjects (1.7%) reported that the family income depended on
government funding (CSSA) for daily living. 18 subjects (2.7%) had family
incomes of HK$5,000-HK$10,000; 127 subjects (19.4%) had family incomes of
HK$10,001HK$20,000; 154 subjects (23.5%) had family incomes of
HK$20,001HK$30,000; 111 subjects (16.9%) had family incomes of
HK$30,001-HK$40,000. There were 19 subjects (2.9%) who had family gross
income below HK$5,000 and 215 subjects (32.8%) with gross family income
above HK$40,000.
120
324
331
49.5
50.5
82
203
151
106
71
42
12.5
31.0
23.1
16.2
10.8
6.4
100
100.0
318
148
189
48.5
22.6
28.9
565
65
25
86.3
9.9
3.8
490
165
74.8
25.2
108
33
12
2
8
66.3
20.2
7.4
1.2
4.9
11
19
18
127
154
111
215
1.7
2.9
2.7
19.4
23.5
16.9
32.8
121
All 655 subjects came from ten different faculties in HKU, including 26
subjects (4%) from Architecture, 73 (11.1%) from Arts, 119 (18.2%) from
Business and Economics, 14 (2.1%) from Dentistry, 38 (5.8%) from Education, 83
(12.7%) from Engineering, 30 (4.6%) from Law, 123 (18.8%) from Medicine, 90
(13.7%) from Science, and 59 (9%) from Social Science. Among them, 73
students (11.1%) were in a BA program, 116 (17.7%) were in a BSc program, 67
(10.2%) were in a BEcon program, 14 (2.1%) were in a BDS program, 48 (7.3%)
were in a BSSc program, 38 (5.8%) were in a BEd program, 83 (12.7%) were in a
BEng program, 30 (4.6%) were in a LLB program, 81 (12.4%) were in a BPharm
program, 19 students (2.9%) were in a BBiomedSc program, 23 students (3.5%)
were in a MBBS program, 52 (7.9%) were in a BBA program, and 11 students
(1.7%) were in a BSW program. Most students (N=456, 69.6%) were studying in
a 4-year program. Others were studying in 3- or 5-year programs, with N=101
(15.4%) and N=83 (12.7%), respectively. Only a few students (N=15, 2.3%) were
studying in a 6-year program. Moreover, most of the students (N=265, 40.5%)
were in second-year study; some students (N=127, 19.4%) were studying in first
year, and 263 students (40.2%) were in third year or above (Table 5.2).
122
Architecture
26
4.0
Arts
73
11.1
119
18.2
Dentistry
14
2.1
Education
38
5.8
Engineering
83
12.7
Law
30
4.6
Medicine
123
18.8
Science
90
13.7
Social Science
59
9.0
BA
73
11.1
BSc
116
17.7
BEcon
67
10.2
BBA
52
7.9
BDS
14
2.1
BEd
38
5.8
BSSc
48
7.3
BEng
83
12.7
LLB
30
4.6
BBiomedSc
19
2.9
BPharm
81
12.4
MBBS
23
3.5
BSW
11
1.7
3 years
101
15.4
4 years
456
69.6
5 years
83
12.7
6 years
15
2.3
First-year
127
19.4
Second-year
265
40.5
Third-year or above
263
40.2
Faculty
Study Program
Duration of program
Current Year
123
One hundred and thirty seven subjects (20.9%) were living alone, with the
remaining students (N=518 , 79.1%) living with family members. 21 subjects
(5.1%) lived with only one family member; 127 (30.8%) lived with two family
members; many students (N=184, 44.6%) lived with three family members; 65
subjects (15.7%) lived with four family members; 13 (3.1%) lived with five
family members; 2 students (0.5%) lived with six family members; only one
student (0.2%) lived with seven family members. 168 students (25.7%) were
living in U hall. 112 students (17.2%) shared a flat with others, and 373 students
(57.1%) indicated other. Most subjects (N=542, 82.7%) found their living space
was sufficient, with only 113 subjects (17.3%) reporting it insufficient. 580
subjects (88.5%) reported that public transport was convenient; the rest of the
subjects (N=75, 11.5%) reported that public transport was inconvenient (Table
5.3).
124
Living alone
137
20.9
518
79.1
21
5.1
127
30.8
184
44.6
65
15.7
13
3.1
0.5
0.2
168
112
373
25.7
17.2
57.1
542
113
82.7
17.3
580
75
88.5
11.5
Family Status
Family members
Place of Living
U hall
Share flat
Other
Living Space
Enough
Not enough
Public Transport
Convenient
Inconvenient
125
5.2
5.2.1
The EFA was used to examine the subscale of CIBRAS in the first step. CFA
was conducted to give further evidence for the factor structure used to check the
EFA findings and the measurement model that was theoretically constructed. The
main study was performed with 655 university students in Hong Kong, aiming to
answer RQ1 and Hypothesis 1.
Research question RQ1: What are the psychometric properties of the CIBRAS?
CFA was conducted to test the factor structure of CIBRAS, with its fit index
values as below: Chi-Square =396, df=142, p<0.00001, NC=2.8, CFI=.94,
126
CIBRAS
396
df
NC
CFI
NFI
NNFI
IFI
0.94
0.93
0.93
0.94
RMSEA SRMR
0.075
127
0.074
0.60
CIBRAS2
0.48
CIBRAS4
0.62
CIBRAS6
0.63
0.72
0.52
CIBRAS19
0.62
0.70
0.81
CIBRAS1
0.56
CIBRAS12
0.54
CIBRAS14
0.59
CIBRAS20
RD
1.00
0.70
0.44
0.67
0.52
CIBRAS21
0.50
CIBRAS31
0.69
CIBRAS8
0.60
CIBRAS23
0.68
AB
1.00
0.40
0.75 0.71
0.64
0.70
LFTB
1.00
0.90 0.34
0.71
0.81 0.41
0.56
0.63
GE
1.00
0.23
0.66
0.57
CIBRAS24
0.47
CIBRAS29
0.40
CIBRAS30
0.54
CIBRAS32
0.45
CIBRAS33
0.41
CIBRAS35
0.45
CIBRAS37
0.73
0.37
0.77
RB
1.00
0.68
0.74
0.77
0.74
Factor loadings for the model with five factors obtained during the CFA are
demonstrated in Figure 5.1. As is seen in the figure, factor loads range between
0.62 and 0.72 for Rigid Demand, between 0.44 and 0.68 for Awfulizing Beliefs,
128
between 0.64 and 0.71 for Low Frustration Tolerance, between 0.56 and 0.73 for
Global Evaluation and between 0.68 and 0.77 for Rational Beliefs.
129
Alpha
0.848
0.792
0.659
0.688
0.751
0.814
130
131
5.3
5.3.1 Introduction
Research question RQ3: Are there any interaction effects (gender x faculty),
(faculty x current year), and (gender x current year) on irrational beliefs and
depression, anxiety and stress?
132
133
the rest. Even though there was a statistically significant interaction effect, the
effect size was small (E.S.< 0.0.45), which has been interpreted as a small effect
by Cohen (1988). Therefore, only hypothesis 3b was supported; 3a and 3c were
not supported.
134
Faculty
Current Year
Dependent variable
Depression
Anxiety
Stress
Rigid Demand
Awfulizing Beliefs
Low Frustration Tolerance
Global Evaluation
Rational Beliefs
Depression
Anxiety
Stress
Rigid Demand
Awfulizing Beliefs
Low Frustration Tolerance
Global Evaluation
Rational Beliefs
Depression
Anxiety
Stress
Rigid Demand
Awfulizing Beliefs
Low Frustration Tolerance
Global Evaluation
Rational Beliefs
Depression
Anxiety
Stress
Rigid Demand
Awfulizing Beliefs
Low Frustration Tolerance
Global Evaluation
Rational Beliefs
df
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
F
2.94
0.04
0.15
3.4
0.01
0.19
2.87
0.64
2.21*
2.65**
2.91**
2.48**
3.71***
1.83
2.11*
1.86
0.51
1.67
2.14
3.85*
2.21*
0.94
2.21
1.78
1.5
1.58
1.18
1.41
1.95*
1.56
1.55
1.64
135
Research question RQ4: Are there any significant differences in the mean scores
of irrational beliefs and depression, anxiety and stress between socio-demographic
variables (gender, age, religion and family income), between academic-related
variables (faculty, study program, duration of program and current year), and
between living environment and transportation variables (family status, place of
living, living space and public transportation)?
Table 5.7 presents the means and standard deviations of CIBRAS subscale
scores (rigid demand, awfulizing beliefs, low frustration tolerance, global
evaluation and rational beliefs) as well as total irrationality scores among different
demographic variables. No significant differences were found in rigid demand,
low frustration tolerance and CIBRAS total irrationality scores among all
136
137
Table 5.7 CIBRAS sub-scores and CIBRAS total scores by demographic characteristics among all subjects (N=655)
RD
AB
LFT
GE
RB
M SD
F
t E.S. d
M
SD
F
t
E.S. d M SD F
t E.S. d M SD F
t
E.S. d
M SD F
t
E.S. d
Gender
-1.3
0.596
0.66
2.308*
0.181
-0.939
Male
12.7 3.2
9.6
2.5
7.8 2.2
11.4 3.1
16.9 3.7
Female
13 3.1
9.5
2.4
7.7 2.2
10.9 3.2
17.2 3.8
Age (years)
0.51
1.593
1.28
0.76
0.75
17
12.8 1.3
8.5
2.4
8 1.4
10.5 1.7
17 2.3
18
12.9 3.2
9.3
2.6
7.7 2
11 3.2
16.4 4
19
13.1 3
9.6
2.4
7.6 2.2
11 3.3
17.2 3.7
20
12.7 3.2
9.5
2.4
7.7 2.1
11.2 2.8
16.9 4
21
12.8 3.3
10.1 2.4
8 2.1
11.4 3.2
17.5 3.5
22
12.8 3.4
9.4
2.6
8 2.7
11.1 3.8
16.9 3.7
23
13 2.9
10.1 2.1
8.6 1.9
11.8 3.3
16.9 3.7
24
11.9 2.8
8.2
2.3
7.6 2.2
10.3 2.3
16.9 3.8
25
10.7 6.1
8.7
1.5
5.7 4.6
14
1
20 3.5
Religion
-0.69
-0.091
0.47
-0.773
2.313*
0.2
Yes
12.7 3.3
9.6
2.5
7.8 2.2
15.1 11
17.6 3.8
No
12.9 3.1
9.6
2.4
7.7 2.2
15.4 12
16.8 3.8
Family Income
1.5
3.970**
0.024
0.62
0.25
0.65
<HK$10,000
13.7 3.1
10.5 2.3
7.8 2.1
11.4 2.9
16.6 4
HK$10,001-20,000 12.8 3
9.8
2.3
7.5 2.3
11 3.2
16.9 3.4
HK$20,001-30,000 12.4 3.1
9.1
2.6
7.9 2.1
11.2 3.1
17 4.1
HK$30,001-40,000 12.9 3.2
9.3
2.6
7.8 2.3
11 3.6
16.9 4.3
>HK$40,000
12.9 3.3
9.7
2.2
7.8 2.2
11.2 3.1
17.3 3.4
Note(1):RD=Rigid Demand; AB=Awfulizing Beliefs; LFT=Low Frustration Tolerance; GE=Global Evaluation; RB=Rational Beliefs; TIRB=Total Irrational Beliefs
Note(2):ANOVA or Independent Samples t -test, which deemed to be more appropriate, was performed to test if there was any difference in DASS scores between different categories of each variables.
According to Cohen (1988), the following guidelines were provided for interpreting value of the eta squared (E.S.) and Cohen's d (d) .
(E.S.): 0.01 = small; 0.06 = medium; 0.14 = large (d): 0.20 = small; 0.50 = medium; 0.80 = large
*p<0.05; **p<0.01
TIRB
M
SD
54.7
53.9
t E.S. d
1.16
-
8.2
8.6
0.7
52.8 3.3
54.3 8.4
54 8.4
54.1 7.4
54.9 8.5
54.5 10.6
56.6 8.4
51
5
49
9
-1.5
53.4
54.6
9.2
8.1
56.8
54.2
53.6
54.2
54.3
7
8.8
8
8.8
8.4
1.4
138
Table 5.8 shows the means and standard deviation of DASS depression,
anxiety and stress scores as well as total DASS scores among various
demographic variables. Most of the demographic variables including age, religion
and family income were found to have no significant differences in the present
study. The results only revealed that there was a significant difference in the
depression scores, t(653)=2.337, p< 0.05, with males having higher scores (M=5,
SD=4.5) than females (M=4.2, SD=4). However, the results showed no
differences in anxiety, stress or total DASS scores between males and females.
139
Table 5.8 DASS depression, anxiety and stress and DASS total scores by demographic characteristics among all students (N=655)
DASS depression scores
M
SD
t
E.S. d
2.337*
0.18
SD
t
E.S. d
0.325
-
SD
Gender
M ale
5.0 4.5
5.0
4.5
5.7
4.3
Female
4.2 4.0
4.2
4.0
5.8
4.1
Age (years)
0.790
1.012
1.28
17
2.3 2.6
1.75 1.5
1.0
1.4
18
4.9 4.4
5.5
3.7
6.1
4.4
19
4.7 4.4
5.2
4.0
6.0
4.4
20
4.2 3.8
5.2
3.6
5.2
3.8
21
4.8 4.3
5.2
3.7
5.8
4.0
22
5.1 5.1
5.2
4.2
5.9
4.7
23
4.5 4.1
5.2
3.9
6.1
4.4
24
3.2 2.4
5.2
2.9
4.8
4.2
25
2.7 0.6
5.2
2.1
5.7
0.6
Religion
-1.304
-0.128
0.518
Yes
4.2 4.1
5.0
3.7
5.9
4.1
No
4.7 4.4
5.0
3.9
5.7
4.3
Family Income
1.156
1.520
1
<HK$10,000
5.8 4.2
5.8
3.5
6.5
3.3
HK$10,001-20,000 4.6 4.3
5.0
3.7
5.6
3.9
HK$20,001-30,000 4.3 4.1
4.4
3.6
5.3
4.2
HK$30,001-40,000 4.7 4.5
5.3
4.0
6.0
4.3
>HK$40,000
4.6 4.4
5.1
4.0
5.9
4.6
Note: ANOVA or Independent Samples t -test, as appropriate, was performed to test if there
Following Cohen (1988), the following guidelines were provided for interpreting value of the eta squared (E.S.) and Cohen's d (d) .
(E.S.): 0.01 = small; 0.06 = medium; 0.14 = large (d): 0.20 = small; 0.50 = medium; 0.80 = large
*p <0.05
d
-
SD
15.7
14.9
11.9
11.1
5.0
16.5
15.9
14.0
15.7
15.9
15.6
11.4
12.0
5.3
11.8
12.0
10.1
11.1
13.2
11.9
8.5
2.6
15.1
15.4
10.9
11.6
18.0
15.1
14.0
15.9
15.5
10.1
11.2
11.1
11.7
12.0
t E.S. d
0.92
-
1.05
-0.34
1.31
140
Table 5.9 indicated the means and standard deviation of CIBRAS subscale
scores (rigid demand, awfulizing beliefs, low frustration tolerance, global
evaluation and rational beliefs) as well as total irrationality scores among different
academic-related variables. There were significant differences among faculties in
rigid demand [F(9, 645) = 3.475, p< 0.001], awfulizing beliefs [F(9, 645) = 3.287,
p< 0.01], low frustration tolerance[F(9, 645) = 1.918, p< 0.05], global evaluation
[F(9, 645) = 2.904, p< 0.01], rational beliefs [F(9, 645) = 1.974, p< 0.05] and
total irrationality scores [F(9, 645) = 1.913, p< 0.05]. Compared to other groups,
law students obtained the highest irrational beliefs scores on rigid demands and
global evaluation, in addition to displaying the highest total irrationality scores.
Moreover, medical students had significantly higher awfulizing beliefs and low
frustration tolerance beliefs. It is evident that there were significant differences
141
among study programs in rigid demand [F(12, 642) = 3.185, p< 0.001],
awfulizing beliefs [F(12, 642) = 3.007, p< 0.001], low frustration tolerance [F(12,
642) = 1.798, p< 0.05] and global evaluation [F(12, 642) = 2.383, p< 0.01]. The
data revealed that LLB students showed significantly higher rigid demand and
global evaluation beliefs than other groups; BPharm students had higher
awfulizing beliefs and low frustration tolerance beliefs than other groups.
Moreover, the results revealed significant differences among the duration of
program in rigid demand [F(3, 651) = 3.981, p<0.01], awfulizing beliefs [F(3,
651) = 2.391, p< 0.05], low frustration tolerance [F(3, 651) = 4.423, p< 0.01],
global evaluation [F(3, 651) = 4.242, p< 0.01] and total irrationality scores [F(3,
651) = 3.182, p< 0.05] . Students taking a 5-year curriculum showed higher total
irrationality scores and subscales scores for rigid demand, awfulizing beliefs and
global evaluation; students taking a 3-year curriculum had higher low frustration
tolerance scores than other groups. In addition, second-year students had higher
rigid demands in comparison with other groups [F(2, 651) = 3.999, p<0.05].
142
(E.S.=0.53); students studying the LLB program reported higher levels of rigid
demand and awfulizing beliefs than students in other study programs.
143
T able 5.9 CIBRAS sub-scores and CIBRAS total scores by academic-related issues among all subjects (N=655)
RD
AB
LFT
GE
RB
M
SD
F
E.S.
M
SD
F
E.S.
M
SD
F
E.S.
M
SD
F
E.S.
M
SD
F
E.S.
M
Faculty
3.475*** 0.046
3.287**
0.044
1.918*
0.026
2.904** 0.039
1.974* 0.027
Architecture
11.7 1.9
9.7
1.9
7.5 1.8
10.6 2.7
16.8 3.3
52.7
Arts
12.7 3.7
9.3
2.2
8.0 2.2
10.9 3.1
17.4 3.8
53.5
Business and Economics
13.0 3.4
9.2
2.8
7.8 2.2
11.0 3.1
16.7 4.2
54.3
Dentistry
11.4 2.1
8.2
2.3
6.1 2.2
9.2 3.2
15.9 4.1
49.0
Education
12.0 3.5
9.3
2.7
7.6 2.3
10.2 3.7
16.6 4.5
52.5
Engineering
13.0 3.2
9.3
2.2
7.8 1.9
11.3 2.9
16.7 3.1
54.5
Law
15.4 2.5
10.4
2.4
7.6 2.5
12.4 3.5
18.3 3.6
57.4
Medicine
13.0 2.9
10.4
2.1
8.2 2.2
12.0 3.1
18.0 3.0
55.7
Science
12.7 3.0
9.6
2.4
7.4 2.3
11.0 3.0
16.5 4.1
54.2
Social Science
12.6 2.8
9.4
2.5
7.6 2.3
10.7 3.7
16.5 3.9
53.7
Study Program
3.185*** 0.056
3.007*** 0.053
1.798*
0.032
2.383** 0.042
1.596
BA
12.7 3.7
9.3
2.2
8.0 2.2
10.9 3.1
18.0 3.8
53.5
BSc
12.5 2.8
9.6
2.3
7.4 2.2
10.9 2.9
16.6 4.0
53.8
BEcon
13.1 3.4
9.2
2.7
7.6 2.1
10.8 3.0
16.7 4.4
54.0
BBA
12.8 3.3
9.3
2.9
8.0 2.2
11.4 3.3
16.7 4.1
54.8
BDS
11.4 2.1
8.2
2.3
6.1 2.2
9.2 3.2
15.9 4.1
49.0
BEd
12.0 3.5
9.3
2.7
7.6 2.3
10.2 3.7
16.6 4.5
52.5
BSSc
12.8 2.9
9.3
2.5
7.6 2.4
10.6 3.6
16.3 3.9
54.0
BEng
13.0 3.2
9.3
2.2
7.8 1.9
11.3 2.9
16.7 3.1
54.5
LLB
15.4 2.5
10.4
2.4
7.6 2.5
12.4 3.5
18.3 3.6
57.4
MBBS
12.3 3.0
9.7
2.3
7.6 2.4
11.7 3.4
18.0 3.5
53.3
BPharm
12.7 2.8
10.8
2.0
8.5 2.2
12.3 2.8
17.8 3.0
56.5
BBiomedSc
14.8 2.8
9.6
2.3
8.0 1.8
11.4 3.9
18.5 2.8
55.3
BSW
12.2 2.6
9.5
2.6
7.5 2.0
11.0 4.4
17.5 4.2
52.6
Duration of program
3.981**
0.018
2.391*
0.011
4.423**
0.02
4.242** 0.019
1.869
3 years
12.5 3.1
9.7
2.4
8.2 2.3
11.1 3.1
17.1 3.6
54.4
4 years
12.9 3.2
9.6
2.4
7.7 2.2
11.1 3.1
16.9 3.8
54.3
5 years
13.5 3.1
9.8
2.5
7.8 2.3
11.9 3.7
17.7 3.7
55.3
6 years
10.7 2.0
8
2.2
6.0 2.2
8.8 3.1
15.5 4.1
48.1
Current Year
3.999*
0.012
1.632
0.655
0.62
1.327
First-year
12.8 3.2
9.3
2.6
7.6 2.1
10.9 3.3
16.6 4.2
53.9
Second-year
13.3 3.0
9.7
2.3
7.7 2.2
11.2 3.1
17.2 3.5
54.7
T hird-year
12.5 3.2
9.5
2.4
7.8 2.2
11.2 3.2
17.0 3.8
54.0
Note (1):RD=Rigid Demand; AB=Awfulizing Beliefs; LFT =Low Frustration T olerance; GE=Global Evaluation; RB=Rational Beliefs; T IRB=T otal Irrational Beliefs
Note (2):ANOVA or Independent Samples t -test, which deemed to be more appropriate, was performed to test if there was any difference in DASS scores between different categories of each variables.
According to Cohen (1988), the following guidelines were provided for interpreting value of the eta squared (E.S.): 0.01 = small; 0.06 = medium; 0.14 = large
*p <0.05; **p <0.01; ***p <0.001
T IRB
SD
F
1.913*
E.S.
0.026
1.643
3.182*
0.014
0.658
6.9
8.5
8.9
7.1
9.9
8.2
9.5
7.8
7.7
8.2
8.5
7.5
8.6
9.3
7.1
9.9
7.7
8.2
9.5
8.0
7.6
8.2
10.5
8.0
8.2
9.4
7.4
8.2
8.3
8.5
144
Table 5.10 describes the means and standard deviations of DASS depression,
anxiety, and stress scores as well as total DASS scores among various academicrelated variables. The results indicated that all of the academic-related variables,
except the current year, showed significant differences. There were significant
differences among faculties in depression [F(9, 645) = 2.255, p< 0.05], anxiety
[F(9, 645) = 2.299, p< 0.05], stress [F(9, 645) = 2.909, p< 0.01] and DASS total
scores [F(9, 645) = 2.720, p< 0.01]. Students in the Faculty of Medicine had
higher stress scores and total DASS scores, compared to other faculties. Students
in the faculties of Medicine and Business and Economics had higher depression
scores. Moreover, students in Business and Economics had significantly higher
anxiety than students in other faculties. It is evident that there were significant
differences among study programs in depression [F(12, 642) = 2.314, p< 0.01],
anxiety [F(12, 642) = 2.051, p< 0.05], stress [F(12, 642) = 2.487, p< 0.01] and
total DASS scores [F(12, 642) = 2.463, p< 0.01]. As for the study program
dimension, students who were taking the BBiomedSc program had the highest
anxiety, stress and total DASS scores, and students in the BPharm program had
the highest depression scores. The results also revealed significant differences
among the duration of program in depression [F(3, 651) = 3.560, p< 0.05], anxiety
[F(3, 651) = 4.730, p< 0.01], stress [F(3, 651) = 5.068, p< 0.01], and total DASS
145
scores [F(3, 651) = 5.030, p< 0.01]. Students who were studying a 5-year program
had higher depression, anxiety, stress and total DASS scores than students in
programs of other duration.
Even though there are statistical significances, the actual differences in the
mean scores were minimal, as all of the effect sizes computed using eta squared
(E.S.) were below 0.05, which has been interpreted as a small effect by Cohen
(1988).
146
Table 5.10 DASS depression, anxiety and stress and DASS total scores by academic-related issues among all subjects (N=655)
Total DASS scores
DASS stress scores
DASS anxiety scores
DASS depression scores
E.S.
F
SD
M
ES
F
SD
M
E.S.
F
SD
M
E.S.
F
SD
M
2.720** 0.037
2.909** 0.039
0.031
2.299*
2.255* 0.03
Faculty
11.3
12.9
4.3
4.7
3.6
4.4
4.1
3.9
Architecture
10.5
14.1
3.9
5.5
3.5
4.6
4.0
3.9
Arts
12.2
16.9
4.2
6.1
4.2
5.6
4.6
5.2
Business and Economics
4.0
4.3
1.9
1.9
1.4
1.5
1.4
1
Dentistry
13.4
17.1
4.9
6.5
4.4
5.4
4.6
5.1
Education
11.8
14.4
4.2
5.0
4.1
4.7
4.4
4.7
Engineering
10.3
16.5
4.1
6.4
2.8
4.9
4.8
5.1
Law
10.5
17.3
4.0
6.7
3.4
5.5
4.3
5.2
M edicine
10.6
14.5
4.1
5.4
3.5
4.8
3.9
4.3
Science
12.7
14.1
4.8
5.3
4.4
4.7
4.3
4.0
Social Science
2.463** 0.044
2.487** 0.044
0.038
2.051*
2.314** 0.04
S tudy Program
10.5
14.1
3.9
5.5
3.5
4.6
4.0
3.9
BA
10.7
14.1
4.1
5.2
3.5
4.7
3.9
4.2
BSc
12.8
17.4
4.3
6.3
4.4
5.7
4.9
5.4
BEcon
11.5
16.3
4.1
5.8
4.1
5.5
4.2
5.0
BBA
4.0
4.3
1.9
1.9
1.4
1.4
1.4
1.0
BDS
13.4
17.1
4.9
6.5
4.4
5.4
4.6
5.1
BEd
13.3
14.8
5.1
5.7
4.5
4.8
4.4
4.3
BSSc
11.8
14.4
4.2
5.0
4.1
4.7
4.4
4.7
BEng
10.3
16.5
4.1
6.4
2.8
4.9
4.8
5.1
LLB
7.2
13.0
2.9
5.7
2.6
4.0
2.9
3.2
M BBS
10.9
18.2
4.1
6.7
3.5
5.8
4.3
5.7
BPharm
11.4
18.7
4.6
7.5
3.3
5.9
4.8
5.3
BBiomedSc
9.7
11.0
3.0
3.7
3.8
4.5
3.7
2.8
BSW
5.030** 0.023
5.068** 0.023
4.730** 0.021
3.560* 0.02
Duration of program
11.0
15.2
4.0
5.6
3.5
4.8
4.2
4.7
3 years
11.4
15.5
4.2
5.8
3.9
5.1
4.3
4.7
4 years
12.1
16.4
4.4
6.4
3.8
5.2
4.7
4.8
5 years
3.9
4.3
1.9
1.8
1.3
1.4
1.3
1.1
6 years
0.504
0.838
0.51
0.182
Current Year
11.2
14.8
4.1
5.4
3.7
4.9
4.1
4.5
First-year
12.1
15.9
4.5
6.0
4.1
5.2
4.5
4.7
Second-year
10.9
15.0
4.0
5.6
3.7
4.8
4.2
4.6
Third-year
Note: ANOVA or Independent Samples t -test, as appropriate, was performed to test if there was any difference in DASS scores between different categories in each variable.
Based on Cohen (1988), the following guidelines were provided for interpreting value of the eta squared (E.S.) 0.01 = small; 0.06 = medium; 0.14 = large
*p <0.05; p <0.01
147
148
As for the effect sizes, only the variable of public transportation in low
frustration tolerance (d=0.4) showed a mild to moderate effect. The rest of the
effect sizes were small (d< 0.4), despite reaching statistical significance.
149
T able 5.11 CIBRAS sub-scores and CIBRAS total scores by living environment and transportation variables among all subjects (N=655)
RD
AB
SD
Living alone
12.7
12.9
SD
3.4
8.9
2.7
7.3
3.1
9.8
2.3
7.9
Place of Living
0.64
t
E.S. d
-3.903***
0.4
LFT
M SD
Family Status
t
E.S. d
-0.44
-
0.164
GE
M
SD
2.3
10.6
2.2
11.3
t
E.S. d
-2.509*
0.24
0.42
RB
M
SD
3.1
16.9
3.2
17.1
t
E.S. d
-2.480*
0.24
0.3
TIRB
M
SD
4.3
52.6
8.8
3.6
54.7
8.2
t E.S. d
-0.57
-
0.37
13.1
3.2
9.5
2.5
7.6
2.1
11.0
3.0
17.2
3.8
54.0
8.2
Share flat
12.8
3.2
9.7
2.5
7.7
2.2
11.2
3.3
16.8
4.1
54.5
8.6
Other
12.8
3.1
9.6
2.4
7.8
2.3
11.2
3.3
17.0
3.7
54.3
8.4
54.0
8.4
55.7
8.2
-1.470
Enough
12.8
3.1
Not enough
13.2
3.4
Public Transport
-0.086
-1.293
9.5
2.4
9.8
2.3
-2.698**
0.212
7.8
2.2
7.7
2.2
0.3
-3.237**
-1.347
11.1
3.1
11.5
3.4
0.4
-2.252*
1.14
17.1
3.8
16.7
3.8
0.28
0.66
t
E.S. d
-2.637**
0.25
0.142
U hall
Living Space
Convenient
12.8
3.1
9.5
2.4
7.6
2.2
11.1
3.2
17.1
3.8
54.0
8.3
Inconvenient
12.9
3.4
10.3
2.6
8.5
2.2
11.9
3.2
16.8
3.4
56.9
8.7
-1.901
-2.824**
0.35
Note (1):RD=Rigid Demand; AB=Awfulizing Belief; LFT=Low Frustration Tolerance; GE=Global Evaluation; RB=Rational Beliefs; TIRB=Total Irrational Beliefs
Note (2):ANOVA or Independent Samples t -test, which deemed to be more appropriate, was performed to test if there was any difference in DASS scores between different categories of each variables.
According to Cohen (1988), the following guidelines were provided for interpreting value of the eta squared (E.S.) and Cohen's d (d) .
(E.S.): 0.01 = small; 0.06 = medium; 0.14 = large
150
Table 5.12 contains the means and standard deviation of depression, anxiety
and stress scores as well as total DASS scores among different variables related to
living environment and transportation. No significant differences were found in
the measured variables of family status. In the dimension of place of living,
students who reported living in a share flat had significantly higher scores in
depression [F(2, 650) = 5.098, p< 0.01], stress [F(2, 650) = 3.992, p< 0.05] and
total DASS scores [F(2, 650) = 4.469, p< 0.05]. However, the small effect size
computed using eta squared (E.S.< 0.05) revealed that the actual mean differences
between groups were minimal.
Moreover, the results of the t-test indicated that there was a significant
difference for enough living spaces (M=4.4, SD=4.1) and not enough living space
(M=5.9, SD=4.8) in depression, t(653)=-3.410, p<0.01. There was also a
significant difference between enough living space (M=4.8, SD=3.8) and not
enough living space (M=5.8, SD=4) in anxiety, t(653)=-2.373, p< 0.05. As for the
total DASS scores between two groups, this test revealed a significant difference
between enough living space (M=14.9, SD=11.3) and not enough living space
(M=17.8, SD=11.9) in total DASS scores, t(653)=-2.496, p<0.05. Moreover, the
test indicated that there were significant differences between convenient public
151
In our findings, public transportation was the only variable to show mild to
moderate effects in depression (d=0.49) and DASS total scores (d=0.41). The rest
of the effect sizes were small (d < 0.4) despite researching statistical significance.
152
Table 5.12 DASS depression, anxiety and stress and DASS total scores by living environment and transportation variables among all subjects (N=655)
DASS depression scores
M
SD
t
0.288
E.S.
SD
t
E.S.
-0.223
SD
t
-1.098
d
-
Family S tatus
Living alone
4.7 4.6
4.9 4.2
5.3 4.4
15.0
Living with family
4.6 4.2
5.0 3.7
5.8 4.2
15.4
Place of Living
5.098**
0.015
2.883
3.992*
0.012
U hall
4.0 4.0
4.5 4.0
5.0 4.2
13.4
Share flat
5.6 5.0
5.5 4.3
6.3 4.4
17.5
Other
4.6 4.2
5.1 3.6
5.9 4.1
15.5
Living S pace
-3.410**
0.35
-2.373*
0.25
-1.151
Enough
4.4 4.1
4.8 3.8
5.6 4.3
14.8
Not enough
5.9 4.8
5.8 4.0
6.1 4.1
17.8
Public Transport
-3.982**
0.49
-2.348*
0.29
-2.847**
0.35
Convenient
4.4 4.2
4.9 3.9
5.6 4.2
14.8
Inconvenient
6.5 4.8
6.0 3.5
7.0 4.1
19.4
Note : ANOVA or Independent Samples t -test, which deemed to be more appropriate, was performed to test if there was any
According to Cohen (1988), the following guidelines were provided for interpreting value of the eta squared (E.S.) and Cohen's d (d) .
(E.S.): 0.01 = small; 0.06 = medium; 0.14 = large
SD
t
-0.372
E.S.
d
-
12.2
11.3
4.469*
0.014
11.2
12.8
11.0
-2.496*
0.26
-3.332**
0.41
11.3
11.8
11.4
11.1
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5.4
The correlations between the subscales of CIBRAS and DASS are shown in
Table 5.13. The results show that there were significant relationships between the
DASS (Depression) score and Factor 1 (Rigid Demand), Factor 2 (Awfulizing
Beliefs), Factor 3 (Low Frustration Tolerance), Factor 4 (Global Evaluation),
Factor 5 (Rational Beliefs), as well as Total Irrational Beliefs. The values of the
Pearson correlation (r) were 0.139, 0.259, 0.287, 0.387, -0.108 and 0.385,
respectively, indicating a mild relationship for Factor 1 and a moderate
relationship for Factor 2, Factor 3 and Factor 4.
154
Likewise in table 5.15, DASS (Stress) and Factor 1 (Rigid Demand), Factor
2 (Awfulizing Beliefs), Factor 3 (Low Frustration Tolerance), Factor 4 (Global
Evaluation), and Total Irrational Beliefs also show significant relationships. The
values of the Pearson correlation (r) were 0.171, 0.250, 0.291, 0.375, and 0.362,
respectively, indicating mild to moderate relationships.
Finally, significant relationships were found between the DASS total score
and the Total Irrational Beliefs score, Factor 1 (Rigid Demand), Factor 2
(Awfulizing Beliefs), Factor 3 (Low Frustration Tolerance), and Factor 4 (Global
Evaluation), as shown in Table 5.16. The values of the Pearson correlation (r)
were 0.391, 0.164, 0.277, 0.307, and 0.393, respectively. These findings support
the concept of the present study that CIBRAS was correlated with DASS in both
subscales and comparison of total scores.
155
Correlation
0.385**
0.139**
0.259**
0.287**
0.387**
-0.108*
Correlation
0.338**
0.147**
0.261**
0.275**
0.334**
-0.017
Correlation
0.362**
0.171**
0.25**
0.291**
0.375**
-0.012
Correlation
0.391**
0.164**
0.277**
0.307**
0.393**
-0.041
156
Research question RQ2: What are the relationships between irrational beliefs,
depression, anxiety and stress? (see figure 5.2, 5.3 & 5.4)
Hypothesis 2b: Depression, anxiety and stress would have significant positive
effects on irrational beliefs (Model B).
Hypothesis 2c: Depression, anxiety stress and irrational beliefs would have
significant bidirectional relationships (Model C).
157
In the analysis of Model B, the results indicated that the model did not fit the
data (chi-square=4345, df=734, p< 0.001, NC=5.92, CFI=0.94, NFI=0.92,
NNFI=0.92, IFI=0.93, SRMR=0.075 and RMSEA=0.085) (Table 5.17). Since
depression, stress and anxiety were highly correlated, Model B exhibited
multicollinearity when these were used as independent variables. Therefore, none
of the path coefficients were significant (see figure 5.3 & table 5.19).
The fit indices of Model C indicated an acceptable fitting model (chisquare=3325, df=734, p< 0.001, NC=4.52, CFI=0.94, NFI=0.92, NNFI=0.94,
IFI=0.94, SRMR=0.085 and RMSEA=0.087) (Table 5.17). The total effects in
158
Model C in Figure 5.4 showed that the correlation between irrational beliefs and
depression, anxiety and stress were 0.34, 0.36, and 0.37, respectively. The details
are shown in Table 5.20.
3606
4345
3325
1343
734
734
NC
CFI
NFI
NNFI
IFI
0.91
0.92
0.92
0.93
0.92
0.94
0.94
0.93
0.94
RMSEA SRMR
0.051
0.085
0.087
0.082
0.075
0.085
159
R=85%
Depression
R=85%
R=97%
0.49
Irrational
0.31
Beliefs
Anxiety
0.44
Rigid Demand
0.43
R=96%
0.63
Demand
Stress
Awfulizing Beliefs
0.50
Global Evaluation
0.68
-0.13
Rational Beliefs
Figure 5.2 The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students (Model A)
Table 5.18 The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students
for university students (Model A)
Predictor
Irrational Beliefs
Outcome
Depression
Beta
0.49
t
19.47
p
0.000
R
0.85
Error Var.
0.049
Irrational Beliefs
Anxiety
0.31
9.32
0.000
0.97
0.0035
Irrational Beliefs
Stress
0.43
15.44
0.000
0.96
0.0076
160
Depression
0.13
Irrational
-0.46
Anxiety
Beliefs
1.06
Stress
Figure 5.3 The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students (Model B)
Table 5.19 The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students (Mo
for university students (Model B)
Predictor
Outcome
Depression Irrational Beliefs
Beta
0.13
t
0.56
p
0.575
R
0.14
Error Var.
0.86
Anxiety
Irrational Beliefs
-0.46
-0.38
0.704
Stress
Irrational Beliefs
1.06
1.23
0.219
161
Depression
0.34
Irrational
0.36
Anxiety
Beliefs
0.37
Stress
Figure 5.4 The hypothesized model of Irrational Beliefs and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students (Model C)
Latent Variables
Depression
Correlation
0.34
t
7.66
p
<0.001
Irrational Beliefs
Anxiety
0.36
6.16
<0.001
Irrational Beliefs
Stress
0.37
7.81
<0.001
162
5.5
Summary of Findings
(1) The construction of the Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational Attitude Scale
(CIBRAS) was successful in obtaining content validity, construct validity and
reliability in the phase one and phase two studies. In the phase one study, the
drafted 37-item CIBRAS was given to 12 experts to evaluate content validity. The
result showed a good rating of CVI on all items, with only two items needing
minor amendment of wording to be retained in the scale. The CIBRAS was
subjected to a validation in a sample of 200 HKU students in a pilot test. The
results showed a 19-item CIBRAS with five-factor solution and good internal
163
consistency (0.64 to 0.80), accounting for 60.1% of the total variance of the scale.
In the phase two study, the result of CFA analysis indicated factorial validity of
CIBRAS with acceptable model fit (Chi-Square =396, df=142, p<0.00001,
NC=2.8, CFI=.94, NFI=.93, NNFI=.93, IFI=.94, RMSEA=.075, SRMR=.074). It
has 5 factors, including rigid demand, awfulizing beliefs, low frustration
tolerance, global evaluation and rational beliefs. The 5-factor, 19-item CIBRAS
demonstrated good internal consistency (= 0.65 to 0.81).
(2) Our findings suggested that there was mild to moderate correlation between
irrational belief and emotional disturbance. Factor 4, Global Evaluation, showed
a moderate relationship with Pearson correlation (r) of 0.39, and other subscales
yielded a mild correlation, with Pearson correlation (r) ranging from 0.164 to 0.30
upon comparison of CIBRAS with DASS total scores.
(3) Our findings suggested that students who have the following characteristics
were likely to have more irrational beliefs. They were male, from low income
families, studying a law program, pursuing a 5-year degree program, and in their
second year of study. Moreover, those students who were living with family and
who reported inconvenient transportation and living environment were found to
164
(4) Our findings showed that male students have significantly higher levels of
depression, and those who are medical students, study 5-year programs, share
living arrangements with others, or have insufficient living space and
inconvenient public transportation in their living area show significantly higher
scores in depression, anxiety and stress.
(5) Overall, our proposed model was supported by the result of SEM analysis.
The goodness-of-fit indices by SEM showed acceptable fit (NC=2.8, CFI=0.94,
NFI=0.91, NNFI=0.93, IFI=0.94, RMSEA=0.051, SRMR=0.082). The results of
SEM analysis indicated that irrational beliefs had greater strength and magnitude
effects on psychological outcomes. Irrational beliefs had a direct effect on three
factors of psychological disorder outcomes, including depression, anxiety and
stress. The results suggest that people with more irrational beliefs may be subject
to an increased risk of the emotional disorders of depression, anxiety and stress.
165
Chapter Six
6.1
Discussion
6.1.1 Introduction
This section will discuss the results and findings of the present study. It also
discusses implications with respect to theoretical contributions, practical
implementation and future research advancement. Finally, a summary and
conclusion will be given.
166
cultural relevancy, good content validity, construct validity and sound reliability.
Overall, the construction process was comprehensive and systematic, involving
expert panel review and EFA of a 200-student sample and CFA of a 655-student
sample. The validity and reliability of CIBRAS were similar to other validated
instruments, such as the Irrational Beliefs Inventory (IBI) (Bridges & Roig, 1997;
Koopmans et al., 1994; Woodward, Carless, & Findlay, 2001), the Smith Irrational
Beliefs Inventory (SIBI) by Smith (2002) and the General Attitude & Belief Scale
(GABS) by Burgess (1986).
Firstly, twelve experts were invited to assess the content validity of the
CIBRAS and examine the quality of the items. All items showed a good rating
(>0.75) on Content Validity Index (CVI), reflecting that the instrument had
achieved relevance, clarity and representativeness. All 37 items were retained,
with a small number of items requiring slight amendment of wording following
expert review and comment.
Construct validity using exploratory factor analysis was carried out in the
sample of 200 HKU students in the phase one study. It suggested a five-factor
model, namely, a 4-item Rigid Demand subscale (24.67%), a 3-item
167
168
The findings showed that male students have significantly higher levels of
irrational beliefs and depression. In addition, students with low family incomes
169
were found to have higher levels of irrational beliefs. Students who professed
religious beliefs were found to score higher on rational beliefs.
Our results suggest that male students had significantly more irrational
beliefs than females, particularly in irrational beliefs pertaining to global
evaluation. Literature review suggested mixed and inconclusive results on the
relation between gender and irrational beliefs. Some literature stated that females
endorsed more irrational thinking than males (Jaradat, 2006; Ndika, Olagbaiye,
and Agioby-Kemmer, 2008). However, Al-Heeti, Hamid and Alghorani (2012)
indicated no significant difference was found in the effect of gender on irrational
beliefs. Our result was consistent with study conducted by Al-Salameh (2011),
where male students were more inclined to irrational beliefs than females. This
may be partially explained by cultural values for men. In Chinese culture, peoples
behavior is governed by Confucian beliefs, which emphasize that a persons
behavior should be in accordance with their expected role and position in society
(Tang & Chua, 2010). There is a traditional concept to differentiate the position of
men and women, men for the exterior, women for the interior. Men are expected
to work and earn money in order to fulfill the role of breadwinner for the family.
In the materialistic society of Hong Kong, men are expected to achieve high
170
educational or economic status in order to provide a high quality of living for the
family. Students with academic excellence are usually expected to enter a moneymaking profession, such as business administration or medicine (Shek & Chan,
1999). Research studies found that there were strong correlations between
educational attainment and earnings (Carnevale, Jayasundara, & Hanson, 2012;
Day & Newburger, 2002; Julian & Kominski, 2011). Because of this cultural
environment, it is likely that males are more vulnerable to being disappointed and
upset if their expectations could not be attained. A study by Shek (2005) also
revealed that there was an intimate relationship between cultural beliefs and
mental health outcomes.
171
Why did male students present with more depression? Again, an answer may
lie in traditional gender roles. Men show more restricted emotionality and
restricted affection (Zamarripa, Wampold, & Gregory, 2003). This is associated
with interpersonal insensitivity, psychoticism and depression (Good, Robertson,
Fitzgerald, Stevens, & Bartels, 1996). Moreover, males are less likely to report
their depressive symptoms. The socialization process enforces a male role where
men are expected to be assertive, independent and strong. Men fear expressing
their emotional problems because this might be viewed as a sign of weakness, and
lead to them being labeled as unmasculine (Cournoyer & Mahalik 1995).
Our study showed that low family income was a significant factor
contributing to irrational beliefs. Other studies also revealed that low income
individuals had higher rates of psychiatric problems, such as depression, anxiety,
or distress (Eaton, Muntaner, Bovasso, & Smith, 2001; Jayakody & Stauffer,
2000). Negative thinking may contribute to these psychological disorders (Peden,
Rayens, Hall, & Grant, 2004). According to Teasdale and Rezin (1978), negative
thoughts lead individuals to devaluate or criticize themselves, and these negative
thoughts may regard the self, others, past experiences or current status. In our
results, low family income students were found to hold more awfulizing beliefs.
172
They showed high CIBRAS scores on the items of (a) If my classmates cant
understand me clearly, I will be terrified, (b) Its terrible for me to be disliked by
other students and (c) If I cannot get a job after graduation, it would be awful.
In these examples, negative thoughts devaluated everything, irrespective of the
event or person; whenever a good result was lacking or an expectation unfulfilled,
it was perceived that this could lead to the worst for them.
The present results revealed that there was a significant relationship between
religion and rational beliefs. The result was supported by another study that
students religious affiliations, including adherence to Hinduism, Christianity and
Islam, and religious orientation, in terms of an intrinsic orientation or an external
personal orientation, had significant impacts on students rational and logical
thinking. Students were more inclined to use a rational cognitive style for decision
making (Buzdar, Ali, & Tariq, 2015). Research studies indicate that religion is a
significant factor to enhance a persons physical health, as well as mental and
behavioral health (Laurencelle, Abell, & Schwartz, 2002; Wuthnow, 2000). It was
believed that students from a religious background were more psychologically
healthy because of positive thinking regarding the self, others and the world.
173
The findings showed that law students and second-year students were likely
to have more irrational beliefs. Medical students had significantly higher scores in
depression, anxiety and stress. In addition, students studying a 5-year program had
both higher scores on irrational beliefs and on depression, anxiety and stress.
Our findings suggested that students studying at the Law Faculty were likely
to have more irrational beliefs, in particular in the subscales of rigid demand,
awfulizing beliefs, and global evaluation. In the same vein, Lake (2000) indicated
that many law students hold some set of irrational beliefs that corrode ones
quality of life. The set of irrational beliefs law students hold include (a) I am
only as good as my grades and class rank, (b) I must study all the time, (c) I
must be at the top of my class to be successful, (d) I cant have a social life in
law school, and (e) I have no time for leisure or for fun. This is congruent with
our findings that law students endure irrational beliefs in the form of rigid
demand. Additionally, legal language and training tends to make law students
think along narrow points of view. Such narrowed views can result in isolation
174
from the rest of the world (Thaler, 2000). Moreover, high competition between
peers when seeking to enter the PCLL program (completion of which is obligatory
if one seeks to practice law in Hong Kong) was a source of emotional problems
for law students. Much research has found that after studying in law school, the
psychological and physical health of law students had significantly declined
(Dammeyer and Nunez, 1999; Mclntosh, Keywell, Reifman, & Ellsworth, 1994;
Reifman, McIntosh, & Ellsworth, 2000). Under such circumstances, law students
were likely to hold some forms of irrational beliefs, such as (a) I must get good
grades, (b) I ought to have a good GPA so as to succeed in the future (c) I am
a failure when I fail to achieve my goals and I feel like I am a stupid person
when I dont do as well as my friends.
175
focus on obtaining internships, career decision making, and jobs after graduation.
Sophomores were in the middle in every respect, and hence they were being
forgotten (Boivin, Fountain, & Baylis, 2000). Being the forgotten class, students
might want to perform well in their academic work in order to make them feel
worthy. Therefore, it is likely that they hold some rigid demand beliefs, such as I
must get good grades and I should perform remarkably in academic work, and
this is the way to make myself feel useful.
Our result showed that medical students had higher levels of depression,
anxiety and stress than other students. These results were congruent with previous
studies (Baykan, Nacar, & Cetinkaya, 2012; Bunevicius, Katkute, & Bunevicius,
2008; Dyrbye, Thomas, & Shanafelt, 2006; Visnjic, Milosavljevic, & Djordjevic,
2009). Another study also examined the prevalence of anxiety and depression
among Chinese students in Hong Kong University. It was found that Chinese
students from medical school reported higher rates of anxiety and depression
(Stewart, Betson, Marshall, Wong, Lee, & Lam, 1997). The high rate of
depression, anxiety and stress may be due to the medical curriculum (Dyrbye et
al., 2005; Yusoff, 2011; Yusoff & Rahim, 2011). They regarded stress factors as
including the examinations, the large amounts of information and knowledge to be
176
learnt or memorized, and insufficient time to review what had been taught.
Students were overloaded with large amounts of content that needed to be learnt
within a limited time to prepare for the examinations. Medical students might feel
academic disappointment and struggle with questions about their capability to
meet the demands of the medical curriculum (Smith, Peterson, Degenhardt, &
Johnson, 2011). As a result, some psychological problems may be encountered.
177
178
required students to take part in internships or placements during their secondyear study. Also, students face fierce competition for employment in the fields of
education and engineering after graduation.
179
The findings showed that students living with family were likely to have more
irrational beliefs. Those who shared living arrangements with others and reported
insufficient living space had significantly higher scores in depression, anxiety and
stress. In addition, students who reported inconvenient access to public transportation
in their living area were found to have significantly higher scores in irrational beliefs
and depression, anxiety, stress.
Compared to students living alone, students living with family were found to
have more irrational beliefs, in particular on the subscales of awfulizing beliefs, low
frustration tolerance and global evaluation. This could be due to students living with
family being directly exposed to higher expectations and being influenced by
Confucianism. Filial piety, a core value of Confucianism in Chinese culture, entails
unconditional material and emotional support for parents. This includes taking care of
parents, giving financial support, pleasing them and demonstrating love, respect and
obedience (Ng, 2002; Ng, Loong, Liu, & Weatherall, 2000). Students in a Confucian
context make a greater effort to satisfy the expectations of their family. If they cannot
180
achieve these, negative feeling may occur. A study showed that around 60% of
students reported pressure because of high levels of parental expectation regarding
their academic achievement (Walker & Satterwhite, 2002). As such, students living
with family were subject to more pressure and therefore they reported high scores on
some items of the CIBRAS, such as (a) I am a failure when I fail to achieve my
goals, (b) If I do not perform well at an important task, I am a worthless person, (c)
Failing in the examinations makes me feel ashamed, (d) I feel ashamed if I cannot
fulfill my familys expectations and (e) I must graduate with satisfactory
performance to meet my parents expectations.
The environmental factors, place of living and living space, were found to
significantly contribute to depression, anxiety and stress. Firstly, students who
reported living in a share flat with others were found to have more depression, anxiety
and stress. This was probably because sharing a flat with others is likely to trigger a
conflict. Every person has his own lifestyle, and accommodation with others is not
easy. The interpersonal problems or conflicts may appear on a daily basis.
Interpersonal problems are found to be associated with chronic stress and depression
(Sheets & Craighead, 2014). In another study, Stroud, Davila, Hammen and VrshekSchallhorn (2011) also indicated that interpersonal problems were twice as likely to
181
It should be noted that the HKU MTR station had opened only one month prior
182
to our data collection period. Our results suggested that inconvenient public
transportation was found to significantly contribute to irrational beliefs and emotional
disturbances. This was probably due to the HKU students not yet being habituated to
using the MTR station facilities; in particular, some facilities were still undergoing
improvement (Sung, 2015). With the newly opened HKU MTR station, in the long
run, it is believed that these problems will be resolved substantially.
Our findings suggested that there was mild to moderate correlation between
irrational beliefs and emotional disturbance. According to REBT theory (Ellis, 1958),
psychological disorders are caused by irrational beliefs in an individual thoughts of an
event. When commencing study at university, a student faces new challenges in many
aspects (peer competition, family expectations, academic workload, family burden,
etc.). However, if these challenges are interpreted by someone with irrational beliefs
which are unrealistic, illogical, over-generalized and impede goal attainment, it would
lead to negative emotions such as depression, anxiety and guilt (Ellis & Dryden,
1987). In a local study of 503 students in secondary schools (Chan, 1991), cognition
was found to be a more important factor in determining depression than the actual
183
According to REBT theory, when one suffers adversity (for instance, a failure in
an examination), real or anticipated, a normal and healthy consequence is to become
upset, worried or frustrated. However, if this is interpreted by someone with irrational
beliefs, the results is maladaptive feeling and behaviors (Ellis, 1962). The process of
rational reasoning is distorted, and irrational beliefs tend to lead the individual to
over-generalize, resulting in self-depreciation, dogmatic demands for approval,
success, fair treatment and satisfying life conditions. These absolutistic and unrealistic
beliefs impede problem-solving abilities for goal satisfaction and lead to negative
emotions such as depression, anxiety and guilt (Ellis & Dryden, 1987). Our finding
supported these theoretical connotations and were congruent with other research
studies that irrational beliefs are a significant predictor of emotional disturbance
resulting in depression, anxiety and stress (DeLucia-Waack & Gellman, 2007;
Nieuwenhuijsen, Verbeek, De Boer, Blonk, & Van Dijk, 2010; Taghavi, Gooddarzi,
Kazemi, & Ghorbani, 2006; Zhao, Zhang, & Li, 2009; Zong, Xiong, & Li, 2012). Our
study results also suggested that irrational beliefs are more likely to predict depression
and stress than anxiety. This demands further empirical research to support this
184
For the reverse model and bi-directional models, our results showed that only the
bidirectional model had acceptable fit indices. In reality, some studies found that
adolescents with depressive disorders had greater risk of developing irrational
thoughts (Joormann, 2010; Rawal et al., 2013). Other studies suggested that
bidirectional relationships were found between irrational beliefs and depression,
anxiety and stress (Cole et al., 2011; Hjemdal, Stiles, & Wells, 2012; Vatanasin,
Thapinta, Thompson, & Thungjaroenkul, 2012). This demanded further study to
investigate how strongly the reverse or bidirectional relationship would be. And it
should take into consideration the effects of potentially confounding factors (gender,
academic faculties) isolated in analyses of relationship between irrational beliefs and
emotional disturbance (stress, depression and anxiety).
185
Chinese society, instead of relying on broad and generalized statements via existing
instruments (Solomon, Amow, Gotlib, & Wind, 2003). Chinese students in Confucian
countries rank success in academic achievement and future career, fulfilment of
parental expectations and being seen as exhibiting filial piety as their top concerns
(Shek, Yu, and Fu, 2013; Woo et al., 2004). The instrument should be able to capture
the culturally specific properties and features of irrational beliefs in Chinese society.
This serves to enhance our understanding of the mechanism through which Chinese
irrational beliefs affect emotional disturbance.
6.2
186
As this study found mild to moderate correlation between irrational beliefs and
emotional disturbance, our findings supported the idea that REBT programs could be
applied as prevention and intervention for college students with emotional disturbance
to dispute these irrational beliefs. As prevention, REBT programs such as You Can
Do It! Education, self-help materials, and REBT-oriented groups could be employed
in classrooms to help prevent the development of irrational beliefs and unhealthy
emotions (Vernon, 2006). Moreover, the present findings showed that Global
Evaluation subscale showed moderate correlation with emotional disturbance, and the
rest of other subscales only mild correlation. Hence, as intervention, REBT groups for
first- and second-year students could be conducted to cope with common irrational
beliefs, in particular global evaluation. For instance, I am a failure when I fail to
achieve my goals, If I do not perform well at an important task, I am a worthless
person, Failing in the examinations make me feel ashamed and I feel like I am a
stupid person when I dont do as well as my friends. To dispute these irrational
beliefs, counselors would employ strategies to correct cognitive distortions through
187
the application of logic and search for evidence (Etscheidt, 1991; Squires, 2001). The
interventions can be tasked-oriented and focused on problem-solving in relation to the
above-mentioned irrational beliefs. Indeed, some REBT programs were found
effective for nursing students to help them cope with stress in college (Kim et al.,
2015), and have become part of an educational curriculum in teaching students in high
schools so as to enhance their well-being and reduction of academic stress (Bernard,
2001 & 2005; Vernon, 2006).
Our study suggested that second-year students were more vulnerable to irrational
beliefs, in particular in the faculties of Education and Engineering. In fact, secondyear students need more attention and research to understand their challenges and
difficulties during their university study. This was echoed by the study of Gahagan
and Hunter (2006) which showed that second-year college students may experience
different struggles, and even greater challenges, than first-year students. Second-year
students have been identified as the academics middle child and the forgotten
class (Biese & Fabian, 2006). This was because first-year students are given
freshmen seminar classes, and seniors are focused on getting internships and jobs
after graduation. Second-year students are between in every respect (Boivin,
Fountain, & Baylis, 2000). In view of the above, the universitys student affairs and
188
resource centre may take a proactive role to identify potential risks factors for secondyear students and equip them with positive coping strategies, including disputation of
irrational beliefs via peer support network and sharing, and personal enrichment
workshops for enhancing social and emotional intelligence.
189
6.3
This study used a convenient sampling of 200 HKU students for a pilot test and
655 HKU students (approximate 4% of the whole student population), due to limited
resources and the tight timeline in EdD study. Although the researcher adopted a
strategy to recruit students from all ten faculties so as to provide a fair
representativeness, this may not have been able to capture all characteristics of
students studying in different years. Future studies can consider using a stratified
random sampling method to recruit students from different years (strata) and with a
larger sample size, such as 10% of the population. It can also include Chinese students
from other local universities as well as universities in Beijing, Shanghai and Taiwan.
Second, cross-sectional design was used in this study; hence the result of the
present study was correlational. The causal relationships could not be inferred,
because all predictors and outcome variables were measured at one point in time. In
addition, levels of irrational beliefs may fluctuate from time to time (e.g. examination
periods and term breaks) and on different occasions (internship periods, placement or
seasonal holidays). In future studies, it would be worthwhile using a longitudinal
study to delineate the causal relationships among variables, and verify the function of
190
Third, the CIBRAS was developed based on our sample of Chinese students in a
comprehensive research-led university in Hong Kong. Therefore, the result might not
be generalized to all university students coming from a diversity of university types.
Indeed, students from different university types (comprehensive research-led
universities, teacher training institutions, applied polytechnic universities) might face
different challenges and be exposed to the influence of different cultural and societal
values. In addition, students might experience different academic workloads and
vocational placements. Therefore, further validation of the CIBRAS in different
Chinese samples should be conducted.
Fourth, this study used a quantitative method that relied on several instruments to
investigate students irrational beliefs and emotional problems, but it may not provide
additional insights into students actual needs and problems. This study only showed
the outcomes relationship, rather than explaining the operation mechanism in richer
context. Further qualitative research is needed to explore the deep meaning of
irrational beliefs, and how they affect cognitive processing and lead to psychological
disturbance.
191
Fifth, although there were many significant results in this study, many tests were
doing with the same set of data. This would increase the risk of false positives. Future
study can consider to test the validity of the findings from this study with further data
sets.
6.4
Conclusion
This study developed a 5-factor 19-item Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational
Attitude Scale (CIBRAS) for measuring irrational beliefs for university students, with
good reliability and validity. It also tested and developed a model of Irrational Beliefs
and Depression-Anxiety-Stress for university students, showing that university
students with more irrational beliefs were more likely to have the emotional disorders
of depression, anxiety and stress. Moreover, the present results showed that secondyear students had more awfulizing beliefs than third-year students in the faculties of
Engineering and Education. Also, students who are male, low family income, law
students, pursuing 5-year programs or in the second year of study, or living with
family and with inconvenient to access public transportation, were likely to have more
irrational beliefs. Students who are male, medical students, studying 5-year program,
with inconvenient access to public transportation, or sharing living arrangements with
192
others and with insufficient living space were found to have significantly higher levels
of depression, anxiety and stress. By developing the CIBRAS and understanding the
relationships of irrational beliefs with depression, anxiety and stress, this study
provides important implications for educational practitioners, policymakers, and
clinical professionals working with university students in Hong Kong and similar
cultural contexts. This study also shed light on avenues for future research.
193
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Appendix A
Dear Prof/Colleagues,
I am currently a HKU EdD student and doing a research of Irrational Beliefs and emotional disturbance of university students. An instrument for measuring
irrational beliefs of university students was prepared based on the literature review and the extract of some items from irrational beliefs scales. Your precious
advices are helpful for us to make revision for this instrument. Please kindly give suggestion for the below instrument. Specifically, please give comments for the
below measurements (1) relevance, (2) clarity, and (3) representativeness.
Topic
Definition
1. Rigid Demand
Refer to what the individual believes he must have or must not have in life (e.g. I absolutely have to be accepted by other students.)
2. Awfulizing Beliefs
Refer to what you believe at the time is worse than the worst thing in the world (e.g. It is the end of the world now I am a loser.)
3. Low Frustration
Refer to what the individual cannot tolerate in a sense that he or she forfeits any chance of future happiness as long as the negative
Tolerance Beliefs
4. Global Evaluation
5. Rational Beliefs
Refer to evaluate ideas with flexible, consistent with reality, logical and yielding of functional consequences (e.g. Although I want to
do well at important tasks, I realize that I dont have to do well just because I want to.)
225
item is representative
item is clear
item is relevant
Topic
No.
Domain relevance
Item clarity
Item representativeness
students.
227
other students.
13. It is terrible to be unable to
228
important task, I am a
worthless person.
24. Failing in the examinations
makes me feel ashamed.
25. I feel like I am a stupid
person when I dont do as
well as my friends.
26. When other students reject
me, I believe that I am a bad
person.
27. My future prospect will be
hopeless if I cannot achieve
good grades in the university.
28. If I do not improve my
communication skills, I will
be failure in all aspects.
29. I feel ashamed if I failed my
family expectation.
Domain E. Rational Beliefs
30. When another student rejects
me, its bad, but not terrible.
31. Although I want to do well at
important tasks, I realize that
229
Appendix B
Table summarized the comments and revision of each item
NO. Panels comments
Original sentence
make it clearer.
(J) may be
"accepted by"?
2
useful.
useful.
expectation.
expectation.
the future.
in the future.
make it clearer.
(E) Seems two contents or ideas separated by a
comma
5
(F)about
other?
6
"satisfactory".
(E) Minor: is the questionnaire for
university/undergraduates only?
(i)not clear whether this reflects "rigid demand" of
the student OR "rigid demand" of his/her parents.
7
would be awful.
Unchanged.
seems to be ok.
my course grade.
10
11
studying method.
I will be terrified.
students.
(E)
of coursework or project.
understand me clearly.
I will be terrified.
comments on my projects.
comments on my projects.
Unchanged.
(J) maybe
students.
17
Unchanged.
18
Unchanged.
tolerate it.
19
It is unbearable to be a failure.
Unchanged.
235
my opinions.
21
22
23
(J) "students"?
my work.
my work.
my goals.
goals.
Unchanged.
I am a worthless person.
evaluation".
24
Unchanged.
ashamed.
25
do as well as my friends.
Unchanged.
I am a bad person.
Unchanged.
Unchanged.
Unchanged.
expectation.
expectation.
if I want to.
(E) Complicatedwhat do you mean by "it does not am a fallible human being.
mean that I am worthless, it just means that I am a
fallible human being"
237
34
criticized.
criticized.
to be.
the sentence.
(E) Annoying but not upsetting? Complex
(F)sentence like Chinese English, please revise this
(I) suggested to change the wording to "It is
annoying but not devastating to be criticized".
35
error.
their respect.
me.
me.
mean?
238
Appendix C
Questionnaire
239
STORAGE OF DATA
All the recorded files and documents will be stored strictly in computer with double
safety measure, the computer has a pin number to log in and the files and documents
are secured with VPN. Three years after the completion of study, all the files would be
deleted.
240
___Hong Kong
Age:
_______
Gender:
_____M
___Kowloon
___New Territories
_____F
Nationality
__________
Marital Status
Single
Married
Faculty/Dept:
________________
___________
Religion:
No
Yes
(i)
(ii) How long has you been an adherent of this religion: ______ (yr)
(iii) How does it affect you:
Family Status:
Important
Fair
Not at all
Living alone
Living with family members, please specify:______________
Shared flat
Other:______________
_____Convenient
____Inconvenient (Reasons:__________________)
____________enough
5,000 10,000
10,001 20,000
20,001 30,000
30,001 40,000
40,001 or above
241
Quite
Very
Most
often
always
applicable
applicable
applicable
feeling at all.
do things.
anything.
242
7. It is unbearable to be a failure.
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Very agree
in all aspects.
14. If my classmates cant understand me clearly, I will be
terrified.
15. I am a worthy person even if I do not perform well at tasks
that are important to me.
243
22. Getting a good grade is the only way to get approval from
32. I do not like failure in a test, but I can tolerate not doing well.
others.
23. If I do not perform well at an important task, I am a worthless
person.
friends.
30. When another student rejects me, it's bad, but not the end of
the world.
worthless.
34. I will be horrified if the teacher gives harsh comments on my
projects.
terrified.
37. I want fair treatment. However, I do realize that I may not be
treated fairly all of the time even though I want to be.
244