Abstract: Objective To know the status of the mental health and the relationship with the hardiness and copying style of medical students. Methods 947 medical students as the subjects were investigated, Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90), the questionnaire of the structure of the university student’s hardiness and Coping Styles Questionnaire(CSQ) were used. Results Compared with the National Youth norm in 1986, the medical students had higher score in compulsion, but lower score in interpersonal sensitivity, depression, hostility and paranoid ideation, and the differences were signiifcant. Compared with the sample of 23 891 college students in the study on the application of SCL-90 in China by TANG Qiuping et al in 1988, the medical students had lower score in all factors, and the differences is signiifcant. Compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, depression were the most common psychological problems. Medical students’ SCL-90 total score, the number of positive items and 10 factors were negatively correlated with hardiness personality total score and four dimensions, mature copying style of solving problem and seeking support, while positively correlated with other kinds of coping style. Conclusion Medical students have a better mental health condition compared with other college students, but there are still some of them having problems in different degree. Hardiness and mature copying style are beneifcial with medical students’ mental health. Immature coping style is not favorable for medical students’ mental health.

Key words: medical students, mental health, hardiness, coping style