The Relative Contribution of Anxiety and Depression in Predicting Quality of Life among Alfaisal University Students

University students are often overwhelmed in numerous academic, so-cial, and personal tasks leading to numerous negative psychological outcomes such as anxiety and depression. It has shown to impact stu-dents’ academic performance, social functioning, and quality of life (QoL). In the current study, differences in relative importance of anxi-ety and depression in relation to students’ QoL was investigated in the population of Alfaisal University students. Quantitative cross-sectional survey was performed on representative sample of students. Anxiety was measured by the Arabic version of Taylor Man-ifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS), a self-reported questionnaire designed to identify the symptoms of overt anxiety. Depression was measured by an MCQ Arabic version of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); a self-report inventory for measuring emotional, behavioral, and physi-cal symptoms of depression. QoL was evaluated by a researcher-made QoL scale for students, which included such subscales as physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and academic satis-faction. Depression predicted QoL with a higher effect size than anxi-ety. There were no statistically significant moderating effects of stu-dents’ gender and the level of education on the anxie-ty-depression-QoL relationship (p > 0.05). Both anxiety and depression negatively impact students’ quality of life, however, depression does it with a slightly higher effect size.