Abstract: Objective To understand the main abnormal psychological symptoms and their occurrence regularity that affect the mental health of nursing undergraduates, and to provide decision support for mental health of nursing students. Methods Nursing undergraduates were surveyed by using symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90) and the data were analyzed by using association analysis, system cluster analysis and decision tree analysis. Results Light interpersonal sensitivity and light anxiety were frequently combined with light obsessive-compulsive, and light interpersonal sensitivity and light psychoticism with light paranoid ideation. Furthermore, all the light symptoms were clustered into one category, and all the severe symptoms were clustered into another. Either obsessive-compulsive or interpersonal sensitivity was the determinant for psychological assessment. If the two factors of obsessive-compulsive and interpersonal sensitivity were normal, the psychological assessment result was normal. Conclusion Obsessive-compulsive and interpersonal sensitivity are the core factors affecting the results of mental health test, and there is a specific correlation between abnormal psychological symptoms. The present study has important reference for mental health assessment of nursing undergraduates, and provides important theoretical reference for formulating targeted psychological intervention measures.

Key words: nursing undergraduate, SCL-90, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, mental symptom screening, data mining