Investigation of the relationship between conscious awareness level and perceived stress and health anxiety in university students

Introduction and Aim: Conscious awareness is expressed as the mental awareness of the individual as a reflection of external and internal factors. On the other hand, stress is defined as situation caused by the person himself and the outside environment, which the person may have difficulty in coping with and also defined as to put the well-being at risk. Health anxiety is expressed as the thought and fear of the existence of a serious illness despite the absence of a disease. Individuals with health anxiety interpret a small difference in their bodies in an exaggerated way. Within the scope of these definitions, the aim of this study is to examine the relationship between conscious awareness level, perceived stress and health anxiety among university students. Materials and Methods: The sample selection of the study was made according to the type of simple-random sample selection. The participants who are willing to participate in this study, consist of 400 undergraduate students studying at Istanbul Gelisim University and Istanbul Halic University. The data were obtained through online questionnaires directed to the participants via computer. The Sociodemographic Information Form, Conscious Awareness Scale, Perceived Stress Scale and Health Anxiety Scale were used within the scope of the study. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS package program. Results: According to the findings obtained from the study, it was found that there was a highly positive correlation between the Health Anxiety Scale and the Perceived Stress Scale score, and a moderately negative relationship between the Conscious Awareness Scale score. When the relationship between Conscious Awareness level and Perceived Stress level is examined, it was seen that conscious awareness significantly predicts perceived stress. When examining whether there was a significant relationship between the perceived stress level and the gender variable, it was found that the perceived stress levels of women were significantly higher. When the perceived stress, conscious awareness and health anxiety levels and the income variable were examined, it was found that the perceived stress level was low and the level of conscious awareness was high in the high-income group, while no significant difference was found in terms of health anxiety. Conclusion: According to the results of the study, while the level of conscious awareness increases, health anxiety and perceived stress levels decrease. In this context, it is thought that conscious awareness studies and trainings may be beneficial for individuals with high health anxiety and perceived stress levels.