The Role of Course Experiences, Gender and Residential Status in Mental Health among Student of Human Sciences

Abstract

Students will go through various academic experiences during their college period. These experiences are caused by different individual, environmental and educational factors. The aim of this study was to determine the role of course experiences, gender and residential status on mental health among university students. Population of the study included students majoring in human science at university of Isfahan, among them, 160 senior students were selected by stratified sampling. Instruments in this study were two questionnaires, i.e., Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R), which was used to measure the participants’ mental health, and Personal and Educational Development Inventory (PEDI), which measured the course experiences. Data were analyzed by t-test, anova, pearson coloration and regression analysis. The results indicated that the students, at all scales, had satisfying (acceptable) mental health. The main effect of gender variable on mental health was significant and the male students were at higher level of mental health in comparison to female students. However, the main effect of residential status variable was not significant (P<0/05). Also, the results showed significant negative relationship between all components of student’s course experiences and mental health (P<0/05); except Self- organizing skills and physical symptoms. The regression coefficients for predicting mental health based on the educational experience was significant in cognitive, social and self-organizing skills (P<0/05) but insignificant in computational skills. Accordingly, appropriate educational experiences of students can be a determining factor on their mental health and it can be effectively guaranteed by providing facilities and training mental health to a large extent.

Keywords

• course experiences
• mental health
• personal and educational development
• university students