Abstract: Objective To explore the characteristics and relationship among self- esteem, self- control and psychological symptoms of people with disablities, and to investigate the mediating effect of self-control. Methods 598 persons with disabilities, extracted by convenience sampling method from January to March, 2015, were assessed with Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), Self-esteem Scale (SES) and the Self-control Scale (SCS) face to face. Results The detection rate of psychological problems of disabled persons was 58.03%. There was significant difference in the scores of SCL-90 among the subjects of different census registers (t=-4.664), disability types (F=5.774), income sources (F=5.402) and education levels (F=2.810) (P<0.05). There was significant difference in the score of SCS among different genders (t=2.097), census registers (t=2.661), congenital disability or acquired disability (t=- 2.617), disability types (F=5.338) and income sources (F=4.476) (P<0.05). There was significant difference in the score of SES among congenital disability or acquired disability (t= 3.652), and different education levels (F=2.443) (P<0.05). The scores of SES (r=-0.179) and SCS (r=-0.396) negatively correlated with the score of SCL-90 (P<0.01), and the scores of SCS positively correlated with SES (r=0.216, P<0.01). SES had significant regression effect on SCL-90 and SCS. Both SES and SCS had significant regression effect on SCL-90 (P<0.01). Conclusion Self-control plays a part of the intermediary role between self-esteem and psychological symptoms, self-esteem can not only directly affect psychological symptoms, but also affect psychological symptoms through self-control.

Key words: people with disabilities, psychological symptoms, self-esteem, self-control, mediating effects