Mental Health Status, Family State and Family Functioning of Undergraduate Students in a Southern University, Thailand
Main Article Content
Abstract
Objective : To determine mental health status in depression, anxiety and stress and to describe family state and family functioning among undergraduate students.
Methodology : A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 400 undergraduate students at a university in the southern part of Thailand. The self-administered questionnaires consisted of socio-demographic data, depression anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21) and family state and family functioning scale (FSFAS-25). The data was the analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95%CI) with logistic regression analysis.
Result : Of 264 participants (66.0%) were female. Among the undergraduates the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress were 45.0%, 53.8 and 35.5% respectively. The extremely severe mental health problems among participants were found in depression (3.50%), anxiety (9.25%) and stress (1.8%). Factors associated with depression were insufficient income (p=0.032), smoking (p=0.007), learning problem (p<0.001), conflicts with peer group (p<0.001). Factors associated with anxiety were underlying disease (p=0.014), smoking (p=0.043), alcohol consumption (p=0.037) and conflicts with peer group (<0.001). Factors associated with stress were insufficient income (p=0.021), smoking (p=0.017) and conflicts with peer group (p<0.001). Family state and family functioning of subjects were assessed. Most of the support, emotional state and the relationships were found at high levels. Most of the discipline and communication were at medium levels. Family statues and family functioning were significantly correlated with mental health status (p<0.001)
Conclusion : Undergruduate students have a high level of anxiety being the most provalent in this study. The mental health problems relate to many factors, so there should be further surviellance and a plan for prevention such as preparing psycholgists for counsrling, providing information for increasin, awareness of these mental health problems and finally a plan for close monitoring of high-risk groups.
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