Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1364-1369
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.197 1364
M
ENTAL
H
EALTH
P
ROBLEMS AND
C
OUNSELING
P
ATH FOR
C
OLLEGE
S
TUDENTS
P
REPARING FOR
E
XAMS
Qianqian Yang*, Qiuxiang Shi, Luobin Zhang
Abstract
The mental health of college students is a nonnegligible aspect of college education. This paper aims to identify the influence of exam preparation on the mental health of college students. First, the causes and manifestations of mental health problems of college students were summed up. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 112 college students. The survey data were analyzed to evaluate the current state of mental health and find out the ways to address the problems with mental health in the preparation for exams. The results show that exam preparation can increase the mental health problems of college students: the mental health state of college students does not change much in 30~50d before the exam, but deteriorate rapidly within 30d leading to the exam; in terms of counseling path, only 16.07% of students choose to seek help from psychological counseling on campus, reflecting the lack of mental health education. The research results provide suggestions for mental health education and psychological development of college students.
Key words: College Students, Mental Health, Education, Counseling Path.
Received: 18-04-19 | Accepted: 20-08-19
INTRODUCTION
Psychology is the basis of one's mind, and it also has a very important impact on one's health (Murcott & Clarke, 2017; Kramer, 1977; Couchman, 1995; Fossey, 2007). For college students, they are in the key stage of growth and development, and their psychology is also more sensitive. Mental health is an important dependence to ensure the normal study, work and life of college students, and it has been paid more and more attention in higher education (Consultancy, 1969; Sironi, 2012; Indoe, 1998). The pre-exam period is a period in which the psychological pressure of college students increases rapidly. It is very important for college students to improve their mental health education and conduct timely and effective counseling (Chen, Krupa, Lysaght et al., 2014;
College of Education, Hebei Normal University of Science & Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, China.
E-Mail: [email protected]
Nguyen-Feng, Greer, & Frazier, 2017; Castillo & Schwartz, 2013).
In terms of mental health education of college students, there are many problems, such as weak teachers, unstable teaching foundation and lack of attention. In the past college students' education, the mental health education is in a relatively unvalued position, so it is not equipped with corresponding teaching conditions. The counseling path to college students' mental health problems mainly include: (1) self-relief. When college students feel that they have problems with depression, sadness and stress, they will naturally take the form of self-relief. The specific ways of self-relief mainly include the diversion of attention, etc.; (2) turn to other individuals for help. Once mental health problems occur, college students are also easy to turn to their relatives and friends for help, but because individuals they ask for help often do not have professional quality, this kind of seeking for help is easy to fall into the wrong area; (3) turn to the organizations and institutions for assistance. All universities in
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China have set up special psychological counseling institutions to help students cope with possible mental health problems, which is also a part of mental health education for college students. However, there are many problems in mental health consulting institutions for college students, such as imperfect organization, inadequate management, irregular agencies and unqualified personnel. And the students themselves often have potential shyness and resistance to this kind of help, therefore, the promotion of this counseling way still needs further efforts.
This study summarizes and analyzes the present situation of college student 'mental health and the ways to address the students' mental health, and puts forward the corresponding suggestion to the existing problems. The research results of this study can provide a certain basis for college students' mental health education as well as some advice for college students' own health protection.
THEORY OF MENTAL HEALTH OF COLLEGE STUDENTS
Causes of mental health problems of college students
There are different opinions on the causes of college students' mental health problems, without a unified view. To sum up, the possible principles mainly include: (1) The sudden change of living environment makes college students at a loss. Entering colleges and universities is the beginning of the independent life of college students as adults. They are far away from their familiar living environment and family members, and their way of life has also changed greatly. Some college students with poor adaptability will have a series of mental health problems. (2) Impact of academic and employment pressures. After entering the university, college students still face great pressure to study, and their learning methods have changed greatly compared with the original, and if students cannot keep up with the faster learning speed in the university, they will feel more pressure. In addition, once college students graduate, they will face the employment problem, which often affects the future career and development of college students. Therefore, college students often feel more pressure because of the employment problem. (3) Friendship and love. As in the adolescence, college students are more
sensitive in terms of psychology and emotion, so they are very easy to be affected emotionally. (4) Other incidental factors.
Manifestations of mental health problems of college students
According to the causes of mental health problems, the manifestations of mental health problems are classified as follows:
(1) College students are far away from their parents and their way of life has changed from being attached to their parents to becoming independent. Most students come to study in different places, and their living environment has changed greatly, so a series of mental health problems will occur when college students cannot adapt to these changes. Mental health problems related to environmental change are generally expressed as anxiety, sadness, distraction from learning, etc.
(2) Before entering colleges and universities, many college students are forced to study under the pressure of examination-oriented education, and after entering colleges and universities, they rely on their own initiative and autonomy to learn. Some students with weak self-control will experience a drop in their academic achievements, and this pressure will increase sharply on the eve of preparing for the exam. This kind of mental problem's manifestations mainly include unclear learning purpose, anxiety and confusion.
(3) In recent years, the employment of college students has become a social issue of great concern. Many college students will face great pressure in the stage of graduation, and they are not only afraid of employment difficulties, but also worried that blind employment is not conducive to future development. The main manifestations of these mental health problems are anxiety, irritability and depression.
(4) As in adolescence, whether in the process of making friends or love, college students are more sensitive. They began to try to communicate as adults, during which they desire to be respected and understood, but also there are many problems such as communication difficulties, so once their desire cannot be satisfied, it is easy to cause mental health problems, which mainly include low self-esteem, social fear, and so on.
This study focuses on the psychological problems of college students caused by learning
MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AND COUNSELING PATH FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS PREPARING FOR EXAMS 1366
pressure, more specifically, on mental health problems of college students preparing for exams.
INVESTIGATION ON MENTAL HEALTH AND COUNSELLING WAYS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS PREPARING FOR EXAMS
Basic information of samples
In order to understand the influence of exam preparation on the mental health status of college students, a questionnaire investigation is conducted among 112 college students. The investigation is conducted by means of voluntary participation.
The basic information of the sample is shown in Figures 1-4.
Figure 1
.
Gender ratio of the samples
As shown in Figure 1, male and female students account for 54.46% and 45.54% respectively, which shows few differences between men and women.
Figure 2
.
Grade ratio of the samples
Since most of the senior students no longer
focus on preparing for exams, the samples of this study are selected from the freshmen to juniors, and the ratio is shown in Figure 2. Among the samples, the proportion of freshmen is the largest, 49.11%, followed by sophomores, 31.25%, and junior students, 19.64%.
The college students who participated in the investigation mainly come from science and engineering, arts and other subjects. As shown in Figure 3, the number of students is in the order of science, engineering and liberal arts. Among them, the number of science students is obviously more, but the number of engineering students and arts students is almost the same.
Figure 3
.
Number of the students in
different subjects
Figure 4
.
Number of the students of
different family annual income
The family income of the college students in the investigation is greatly different, some richer families have the annual income of more than one million and some poorer families have the
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income of tens of thousands. As shown in Figure 4, the higher the annual family income, the smaller the number of college students participating in the investigation is, that’s, most of the college students in the investigation come from low- and middle-income families.
Investigation on mental health of college students preparing for examination
This study mainly uses SCL-90 to investigate the mental health status of college students.
In order to analyze the influence of exam preparation on college students' mental health, the present situation of college students' mental health is investigated five times: 10 days before exams, 20 days before exams, 30 days before exams, 40 days before exams and 50 days before exams. The indexes include the total score of
Symptom Checklist 90, the score of positive
symptoms, the score of negative symptoms and the average score of positive symptoms of
Symptom Checklist 90.
Total score
The average changes of the total scores of
SCL-90 in 112 college students are shown in
Figure 5.
Figure 5
.
Changes of SCL-90 scores
As shown in Figure 5, the total score of SCL-90 changes smoothly in the first 30 to 50 days before exams, while the symptom score of mental health problems of students increases sharply in the period of one month before exams.
Scores of positive symptoms and negative symptoms
The average changes in the scores of positive symptoms and negative symptoms in the SCL-90
of 112 college students are shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6
.
Changes of SCL-90 symptoms
As shown in Figure 6, in the first 30 to 50 days before exams, the symptom score of SCL-90 changes smoothly, while in the one month before exams, the score of positive symptoms increases sharply and the score of negative symptoms decreases sharply.
Average score of positive symptoms
The average changes in positive symptom scores of SCL-90 of 112 college students is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7
.
Changes of SCL-90 positive
symptom scores
As shown in Figure 7, the symptom score of SCL-90 changes smoothly in the first 30 to 50 days before exams, and the positive symptom score of students increases sharply in the period of one month before exams.
According to the above analysis, when college students are in the period of 50 days to 30 days before exams, their mental health status is not affected by the exam preparation. When
MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AND COUNSELING PATH FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS PREPARING FOR EXAMS 1368
the exam preparation period of college students is less than 30 days, their anxious mood and mental health symptoms increase sharply.
Investigation on the counselling ways of college students preparing for exams
In addition, this study has also investigated the counselling ways of college students preparing for exams. The results are shown in Figure 8.
As shown in Figure 8, 36.61% of the students mainly adopt the self-relief to solve their own mental health problems. The characteristics of such students mainly include: (1) they are introverted and not good at expressing themselves, so they often digest their own emotions through the way of self-relief; (2) the mental health problems existing in the students are still within the tolerance scope, and the students think that there is no need to ask for help from the outside world.
Figure 8
.
College students' psychological
counseling path
47.32% of students chose to turn to others for help, including relatives, friends and teachers. Such students tend to be more extroverted and have a close relationship with the person being asked for help.
16.07% of students choose to ask for help from organizations, which generally refer to campus psychological counseling institutions. The proportion of these students is the smallest among all the students investigated, and the students often have some psychological pressure when they choose this kind of counselling path, which indicates that the mental health education in colleges and universities still has a long way to go.
CONCLUSIONS
By means of questionnaire, this study investigates and analyzes the present situation and counselling path of mental health of the college students preparing for exams, and draws the following conclusions:
(1) In the exam preparation period, the psychological stress of college student increases sharply, which will lead to a surge of psychological problems among college students, and the total score of SCL-90, the score of positive symptoms, the score of negative symptoms and the average score of positive symptoms of SCL-90 will change with the change of exam time.
(2) The total score of SCL-90, the score of positive symptoms, the score of negative symptoms and the average score of positive symptoms of SCL-90 won’t change significantly within 30 to 50 days before exams. Within 30 days before exams, the four indexes change rapidly with the shortening of the exam preparation time.
(3) There are still a lot of deficiencies in psychological education in colleges and universities of China, because most college students choose to relieve themselves and ask for help from relatives and friends, while less to seek help from psychological counseling institutions in colleges and universities.
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