A Study of Mental Health of the College Students in Relation to their Gender and Faculty
ABSTRACT ::
The present study is intended to examine the mental health of college students. The variables included for the study apart from mental health are gender and faculty. The study was conducted on a sample of 80 students (40 boys, 40 girls) randomly selected from the various arts and commerce college. A standardized questionnaire developed by Dr.Ashwin Jansari , Dr.Harkant Badami and Dr.(smt) Charulata Badami was adopted for this study. The data was analyzed to examine the influence of individual factors on mental health variables. ‘t’ test was used for calculation. The results shows that there was no significant mean difference in relation to boys and girls, and there was a significant mean difference in relation to arts and commerce college students.
1.Introduction:
Mental health is a term used to describe either a level of cognitive or emotional wellbeing or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. The World Health Organization states that there is no one "official" definition of mental health. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how "mental health" is defined. The capacity of an individual to form harmonious relations with his/her social and physical environment, and to achieve a balanced satisfaction of his/her own drives. The psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment is known as mental health. A state of psychological and emotional well-being that enables an individual to work, love, relate to others effectively, and resolve conflicts.
Concept Of Mental Health:
Menninger (1945) defined mental health as the adjustment of human beings to the world and to each other with a maximum of effectiveness and happiness. It is the ability to maintain an even temper, an alert intelligence, socially considerate behavior and a happy disposition.
Mental health can be described as absence of symptoms of maladjustment, be they mild or severe. Mentally healthy person is free from all types of maladjustment (Klein, 1956).
Jahoda (1958) has said that aspects of attitudes toward self, growth and development, self-actualization, integration of personality and mastery of the environment must be considered in judging whether a person is mentally healthy or not.
Mental health is how we think, feel and act as we cope with life. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices. Like physical health, mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.
Everyone feels worried, anxious, sad or stressed sometimes. But with a mental illness, these feelings do not go away and are severe enough to interfere with your daily life. It can make it hard to meet and keep friends, hold a job or enjoy your life. Mental illnesses are common – they affect about one in five families. It is not your fault if you have one. These disorders – depression, phobias, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and many others - are real diseases that you cannot will or wish away. Fortunately, they are often treatable. Medicines and therapy can improve the life of most people with mental illnesses.
2.Review of literature:
Sirohi (2002) conducted the study on the effect of religion on mental health. The sample consisted of 250 XI standard boys covering three religions (i.e) Hindu (n = 105),Christian (n = 80) and Muslim (n = 80). Sirohi Mental Health Questionnaire developed by the author was used for assessing the mental health of adolescents. He reported that Christian had significantly poor mental health when compared with Hindu and Muslim boys.
Vasuki and Charumathy (2004) compared the sibling rivalry with achievement motivation, frustration, mental health and self conflict of adolescents on a sample of 60 girls and 60 boys of age 15-18 years. Mental health was assessed by mental health inventory developed by Jagdish and Srivastava (1983). Rivalry resulted in inferior level of achievement motivation and poor mental health. Greater extent of sibling rivalry also leads the adolescents to become more frustrated.
3. Objectives:
4. Hypothesis:
5.Variabales:
6. Method:
7. Statistical Calculations:
In the present study sample was selected randomly. We taken 40 boys who were studying in arts and commerce college also 40 girls who were studying in arts and commerce college, total 80 sample was selected in this study.
Approximately 120 sample was selected in each category for the research study. After disposing off incomplete and nuclear details, a total of 80 sample was selected as per primary planning.
In order to measure the mental health of the college students who were studying in arts and commerce college. We used a mental health Analysis Questionnaire (Revised) was prepared by Dr.Ashwin Jansari, Dr.Harkant Badami and Dr. (smt.) Charulata H. Badami. There are 100 items. The reliability of scale was determine by test-retest method is 0.92 and split half method is 0.90 the scale was validated against self analysis test was 0.71 and neurotism test was 0.69.
Obtained information analyzed as per mean, SD & ‘t’ test method. And hence, internal effect on the independent factors was examined.
8. Result and Discussion:
Table-1
Showing mean, SD & ‘t’ value of mental health score of boys and girls.
| Sr.No | Group |
N |
Mean |
SD |
‘t’ Value |
Table Value |
Level of sign. |
1. |
Boys |
40 |
71.52 |
7.20 |
0.94 |
1.99 |
NS |
2. |
Girls |
40 |
69.80 |
8.98 |
As can be seen from table that ‘t’ value of 0.94 is not significant at 0.05 level. This means that the two groups under the study differ not significantly in relation to mental health. The mean score of boys group is 71.52 as against the mean score of 69.80 of the girls group. It should be remembered here that, according to scoring pattern, higher score indicate good mental health. Thus from the result it could be said that the boys is having little good mental health than girls group. The hypothesis that “There is no significant mean difference between the score of mental health of college students in relation to their gender” is accepted.
Table-2
Showing mean, SD & ‘t’ value of mental health score of arts and commerce college students.
| Sr.No | Group |
N |
Mean |
SD |
‘t’ Value |
Table Value |
Level of sign. |
1. |
Arts students |
40 |
72.79 |
8.47 |
2.97 |
1.99 |
0.05 |
2. |
Commerce students |
40 |
67.71 |
6.77 |
As can be seen from table that ‘t’ value of 2.97 is significant at 0.05 level. This means that the two groups under study differ significantly in relation to mental health . The mean score of arts college students group is 72.79 as against the mean score of 67.71 of commerce college students. It should be remembered that, according to scoring pattern , higher score indicate good mental health. Thus from the result it could be said that the arts college students is having good mental health than commerce college students. The hypothesis that “There is no significant mean difference between the score of mental health of college students in relation to faculty” is rejected.
9. Conclusions:
- There was no significant mean difference in relation to boys and girls.
- There was a significant mean difference in relation to arts and Commerce college students.
References: ::
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Naresh G. Vaghela
Researcher
Assist. Professor,(C.B)
Govt. Arts and Commerce College, Jadar
Ta.Idar, Dist.Sabarkantha.
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