Behavioral and Emotional Factors Identifying Dental Students’ Academic Performance and Depression Tendency in Japan

Abstract

This study primarily aimed to identify the mechanism through which behavioral and emotional factors relate to Japanese dental students’ academic performance, and secondarily to explain which emotional and behavioral factors and academic performance are related to dental students’ depression. A questionnaire survey was administered to 92 first-year undergraduate dental students during the 2018 academic year at a Japanese university. Regarding the mechanism of students’ academic performance, results of path analysis revealed that procrastination behavior positively affected emotional irritation and emotional irritation negatively affected academic performance. Correlation analysis revealed that depression tendency was positively related to emotional irritation and procrastination behavior. This study shows that undergraduate dental students’ stable emotion (lack of irritation) is likely associated with their academic success and their psychological health. Hence, to aid in the reduction of dental students’ depression and to improve their academic performance, we propose that educators should display acceptance of students’ emotions as an alternative to suggesting solutions from their own viewpoint.