The convenience sample consisted of 201 Bachelor of Nursing (BN) students inclusive of 20 (10%) males and 181 (90%) females. The mean age was 25.80 yrs (SD = 8.43). The sample size of 201 participants was determined by the Power Analysis Computer Software

and and the criteria of Alpha at 0.05 and power (1- Beta) at 0.80” 34. After IRB approval of this study, the researchers explained this study to nursing students and, if they were willing to participate, they were asked to fill out the informed consent form and the questionnaires. Participants returned the questionnaires in a locked box in the nursing department.

Data were collected using six instruments, all of which were selected for their reliability and validity. All of the instruments had good internal consistency. Their Cronbach’s Alpha values were greater than 0.7 (Table 1).

Participants’ psychological well-being was measured using the 18-item PWBS 35. Six concepts (autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth, positive relations with others, and self-acceptance) were assessed. Items were scored on a six-point Likert-type scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (6) strongly agree. Higher scores indicate more positive psychological well-being. Validity of the scale was examined by confirmatory factor analyses 36. In a previous study, internal consistency for each subscale, based on a sample of 321 adults (age range 19.53 - 74.96 years), revealed a high degree of reliability with Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.83 to 0.91 35. The Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.81 in this study (Table 1).

The Brief Screen for Adolescent Depression Scale (BSADS) was developed by the Signs of Suicide Project 37. The BSADS was used to measure participants’ suicidal ideation. There were seven questions with items scored on a Yes or No basis. Scores from 0 to 2 indicated no evidence of depression; 3 indicated some evidence of depression and scores of 4 or greater indicated the person should talk to a mental health professional. The Cronbach’s Alpha for the BSADS was 0.73 in this study (Table 1).

Anxiety was measured by the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAS) 38: 42 questions were scored on a five-point scale ranging from (0) Not Present to (4) Very Severe. The higher the score, the higher the level of anxiety. The Cronbach’s Alpha for the HAS was 0.95 in this study (Table 1).

Depressionwas measured using the Zung Depression Scale (ZDS) 39: 20 questions were scored on a four-point scale ranging from (1) None or Little to (4) Most or All. Higher scores indicate higher levels of depression. The Cronbach’s Alpha for the ZDS was 0.80 in this study (Table 1).

Personality characteristicswere measured using the Big FivePersonality Test developed by Goldberg 40. The instrument has five subscales: Confidence, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and Intellect. Fifty items were scored on a five-point scale. Higher scores indicate more positive personality characteristics. The Cronbach’s Alpha for this instrument was 0.88 in this study (Table 1).

Family Interactionwas measured using the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales (IFIRS) 41.The IFIRS was used to measure parenting attributes. There were two parts: the positive rearing attitude and the negative rearing attitude. The total was 29 questions. The positive rearing attitude part has 21 questions including five subscales (Child Monitoring, Inductive Reasoning, Communication, Positive Reinforcement and Involvement). The negative rearing attitude part has 8 questions including the Harsh Discipline and Inconsistent Discipline subscales. Items were scored on a five-point scale ranging from (1) Never to (5) Always. For the positive rearing attitude subscales, higher scores indicate more positive rearing attitude. The Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.94 for the positive rearing attitude subscales in this study. For the negative rearing subsection, higher scores indicate the likelihood of harsh discipline. The Cronbach’s Alpha in this study was 0.83 for the negative rearing subsection (Table 1).

Most participants were female (n = 181, 90%) and single (n = 130, 64.7%). One hundred and fifty-seven (78.1%) were Australian. Ninety-six (47.8%) were Christian and 81 (40.3%) were not religious. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 61, with a mean of 25.80 years (SD = 8.43). The monthly income for 85 (42.3%) participants was less than US$1,000.00 (Table 2).

Overall, participants expressed low levels of anxiety (M = 35.61, SD = 21.93), medium levels of depression (M = 38.48, SD = 8.09), and medium-high levels of positive personality (M = 171.80, SD = 18.43). They perceived medium-high levels of positive family interaction (M = 74.20, SD = 16.18) and medium-low levels of harsh discipline (M = 8.22, SD = 3.39). Therefore, participants expressed medium-high levels of psychological well-being (M = 82.03, SD = 11.01) and low levels of suicidal ideation (M = 1.98, SD = 1.79) in this study (Table 3).

According to Pearson’s correlation, Australian nursing students’ psychological well-being was significantly associated with anxiety (r = -0.540, p < 0.001), depression (r = -0.647, p < 0.001), personality (r = 0.642, p < 0.001), positive family interaction (r = 0.362, p < 0.001) and parents’ harsh discipline (r = -0.181, p < 0.01). Suicidal ideation was significantly associated with anxiety (r = 0.590, p < 0.001), depression (r = 0.684, p < 0.001), personality (r = -0.372, p < 0.001), positive family interaction (r = -0.182, p < 0.01) and psychological well-being (r = -0.480, p < 0.001).

When the participants’ scores of anxiety and depression decreased, their scores of psychological well-being increased and their scores of suicidal ideation decreased. When the participants’ scores regarding positive personality and positive family interaction increased, their scores of psychological well-being increased and their scores of suicidal ideation decreased. Results indicated that students exposed to harsh discipline had a decreased level of psychological well-being.

Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to examine the degree to which psychological well-being was predicted by the five independent variables. As shown in Table 4, the model variables accounted for 58% of the psychological well-being variance. Lower scores of depression (Beta = -0.427, p < 0.001), higher scores of positive personality (Beta = 0.395, p < 0.001), and higher scores of positive family interaction (Beta = 0.127, p < 0.01) were found to predict significantly higher psychological well-being.

Stepwise multiple regression analysis also examined the degree to which suicidal ideation was predicted by the five independent variables. Table 4 indicates how the model variables accounted for 49.1% of the suicidal ideation variance. Higher scores of depression (Beta = 0.532, p < 0.001) and higher scores of anxiety (Beta = 0.215, p < 0.001) were found to predict significantly higher scores of suicidal ideation.

There was a significantly negative relationship between participants’ depression and psychological well-being. Personality and family interaction were positively associated with participants’ psychological well-being.