Objective: The present study was designed to study the relationships and conduct a comparison between defense styles and mental health among people in early adulthood who resided in Bangkok. The participants included 400 people aged 20 to 44.

Materials and Methods: Two instruments were used were used in this study: 1) the Defense Style Questionnaire 60 [DSQ-60] Thai version, DSQ-60 which categorized defenses into 3 styles: Image distorting, Affect regulating and Adaptive, and 2) the Thai Mental Health Questionnaire [TMHQ] which evaluated 5 domains of mental health: Somatization, Depression, Anxiety, Psychotic and Social function.

Results: Two out of the three major defense styles, Image distorting and Affect regulating, were positively correlated with all domains of mental health. The other defense style, Adaptive style, was negatively correlated with anxiety and social function. Participants with mental health problems in all domains tended to use more Image distorting styles; participant style with mental health problems in somatization, depression, and psychotic used more Affect regulating styles than those without any mental health problems. Finally, no differences were found among participants with and without mental health problems regarding the use of the Adaptive style.

Conclusion: Since Image distorting and Affect regulating styles were found to be associated with mental health problems. This information might be useful for the development of a mental health prevention policy. However, there should be further studies regarding other factors that might contribute to these findings.

Keywords: Defense mechanisms, Mental health, Early adulthood