Psychopathology, personality and theory of mind in a sample of university students

Objective. To assess psychopathology, personality and theory of mind in a sample of university students, and to analyse their correlation with socio-demographic and academic factors. Materials and methods. Socio-demographic and academic data were collected from 228 students. They completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-R, Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-L) and Theory of Mind (ToM) test. Results. Elevated psychological distress was found in 38.6% of students; 30.3% had an abnormal ToM score. Students with an abnormal ToM score had a significantly lower probability than those with normal ToM test to repeat an exam three times or more. Not being married and receiving psychiatric care significantly influenced the probability of repeating an exam. Abnormal ToM students had specific features as far as major and SCL-90-R scores are concerned. Conclusions. A correlation was found among ToM performance and some indicators of academic performance. Students with ToM scores under the cut-off reported more psychopathological symptoms and distress. Implications are discussed.