Influence of perceived academic stress and personality traits towards undergraduates mental health in private higher learning

Abstract

Mental health issues often occur among students and create negative impact on students. University student's mental health has become a growing issue in higher education. This vulnerable population has been brought under renewed attention by the COVID-19 pandemic situation. This study will focus into the influence of perceived academic stress and personality traits on undergraduates' mental health at private higher learning institutions. A quantitative approach was used to conduct this study with whereby a total of 152 respondents who were the undergraduate's students at University of Reading, Malaysia were chosen using ratio random sampling. Three types of instruments which are Perceived Academic Stress Scale (PAS), Mental Health Inventory (MHI), and Big Five Inventory (BFI) were adapted and utilized in this context of the study. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the findings indicated that about 66 (43.42 %) respondents had an overall score of 67 or more and hence were classified as having good mental health. 32 (21.05%) respondents with scores 62-66 were with some mental problem and were referred for counseling services. However, 54 (35.53%) were classified to be having poor mental health requiring further referral and detailed evaluation. The undergraduate students have higher level of mental health (mean=3.53, sd=1.88) as compared to perceived academic stress (mean=2.49, sd=1.23) while the overall mean score for personality traits (mean=2.74, sd=1.18) was at moderate level. As a conclusion, there is a significant predictor of perceived academic stress and personality traits towards undergraduate student's mental health (p < 0.05) but only 5.6 % of the mental health variation can be explained by the respondents' personality traits and perceived academic stress. The null hypothesis was therefore to be rejected. The results of this study show presence of poor mental health problems among undergraduate students and need increasing awareness on various mental health issues, providing supportive mentoring and encouraging the undergraduates to seek health when needed is crucial in promoting better mental health of undergraduates at University of Reading, Malaysia.