Abstract: Objective To identify the types of psychological stress among nursing undergraduates, and compare the differences in demographic characteristics, coping styles and professional identity of students with different types of psychological stress. Methods From March to April 2020, 2,999 nursing undergraduates in Hebei province were surveyed by using general information questionnaire, College Student Psychological Stressors Questionnaire, College Student Coping Style Questionnaire, and Nursing Undergraduate Professional Identity Questionnaire. Results The types of psychological stress of nursing undergraduates were classified into four types as “great employmentstress”(n=570), “generally lowstress ”(n=1163), “generally mediumstress” (n=610) and “generally highstress” (n=656). Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that there were statistical differences in terms of grade, student leaders or not, whether their parents and friends were engaged in nursing work, coping styles, and professional identity (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the distribution of sex and reasons for applying for nursing specialty (P>0.05). Compared with the type of “generally lowstress”, “generally highstress” (OR=0.579, P<0.001) and “great employmentstress” (OR=0.496, P<0.001) were negatively correlated with professional identification score. Conclusion There is heterogeneity in psychological stress among nursing undergraduates, and 4 types of psychological stress are identified. Particular attention should be paid to the students with “generally highstress” and “great employmentstress”.Psychological counseling strategies are needed for nursing students with various types of psychological pressure, so as to guide them to cope with the stress correctly, and improve the professional identity of nursing students thus to stabilize the nursing team.

Key words: nursing undergraduate, stress, coping style, professional identification, latent profile analysis