Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 180-185
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.221 180
Q
UESTIONNAIRE
S
URVEY AND
S
TATISTICAL
A
NALYSIS ON
P
SYCHOLOGICAL
H
EALTH
M
ANAGEMENT OF
C
OLLEGE
S
TUDENTS
UNDER
H
IGH
P
RESSURE
Rui Ma
1, Yifeng Li
1, Pengfei Zheng
2*
Abstract
Psychological problems are widely seen among today’s college students. It is important for colleges to improve the psychological health of their students. Based on the relevant psychological theories, this paper carries out a questionnaire survey in Qingdao University Town on the psychological health of college students under high pressure, and analyzed the survey data on SPSS 16.0 software. The psychological problems of the respondents and their causes were identified, and several countermeasures were put forward. The results show that psychological problems are increasingly prevalent among college students in China; the psychological stress of college students mainly comes from employment pressure and the anxiety about the future; the family income greatly affects the psychological stress, life satisfaction and psychological resilience of college students; their life satisfaction is positively correlated with toughness and optimism in psychological resilience, and negatively with psychological stress. The research results help to enhance the psychological health of college students.
Key words: College Students, Psychological Health Management, Stress Theory,
Questionnaire Theory.
Received: 18-03-19 | Accepted: 26-10-19
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, psychological problems have
become a serious issue that plagues
contemporary college students. The external environment is changing constantly and the social competition is becoming increasingly fierce, so college students are facing not only the academic pressure but also pressures from the society (Nguyen-Feng, Greer, & Frazier, 2017). College students are at a stage in which their mentality is not fully mature and they sorely lack social experience; so, when facing pressure, they lack the experience to cope with it, and after the negative emotions have accumulated to a
1Economics and Management School, Wuhan University,
Wuhan 430072, China. 2Shanghai Customs College, Shanghai
201204, China.
E-Mail: [email protected]
certain degree, they would be prone to various psychological problems such as anxiety, dysphoria, and depression, or even homicide or suicide in worse cases, which has seriously affected the health of college students (Meekyung & Helen, 2015). The psychological health of college students not only has an important impact on their own growth, but also affects the development and stability of the entire society. Therefore, attaching importance to the psychological health of college students and enhancing their psychological health is an important task for colleges and universities, and it is of very important social significance (Castillo & Schwartz, 2013).
The psychological health of college students is a focus of the whole society. Many scholars at home and abroad have carried out a lot of research from different angles and formed a series of research results. Some scholars carried out studies on the
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181
factors influencing college students' psychological health (Knowlden, Hackman, & Sharma, 2016); some scholars believe that college students' psychological pressure not only comes from themselves, but also comes from the society (Hurd, Tan, & Loeb, 2016); Some scholars gave theoretical
descriptions of the causes of college students’
psychological problems and put forward targeted solutions and countermeasures (Loss, Lindacher, & Curbach, 2014). However, most of the current researches still stay at the theoretical level and lack data support and empirical analysis. This paper mainly adopts empirical methods for research and analysis, and it further improves the reliability of the research results.
Based on survey results and statistical analysis, this study applies the college student psychological stress scale to collect data and uses SPSS16.0 software to analyze the data, then the paper
conducts research and analysis on college students’
psychological problems under high pressure, aiming to find the causes of these problems and propose targeted countermeasures and suggestions, so as to effectively improve their psychological health and provide certain reference for the comprehensive and healthy development of college students.
OVERVIEW OF RELATED THEORIES
Stress theory
Stress mainly refers to a tense mental and physical state caused when people think their own
adaptability has not fully adapted to the changes in external environment. Normally, this tense status is mainly reflected through physiological and psychological changes (Chui & Chan, 2017). Stress is a dynamic process; it mainly includes three links: stressor, cognitive response, and evaluation, as shown in Figure 1.
Stress has three characteristics: important, uncertain and lasting. Generally speaking, stress has obvious meanings to people and often lasts for a long time. People often do not know how to deal with stress effectively (Arria, Winick, Garnier-Dykstra et al., 2011).
Psychological health management
Psychological health management is an important part of human health management, and it is also the premise and foundation of health
management. The psychological health
management of college students takes psychological health resources as the core and the psychological health of college students as the center; then colleges and universities would coordinate society, teachers, families and other subjects, and adopt psychological health training to effectively solve a series of psychological problems existing in college students, and thereby improving their psychological health levels (Suh, 2018). Psychological health management mainly includes five principles: long-term, active, systematic, targeted, and gradual, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1
.
Three links of psychological pressure
Stressor
Cognitive assessment
Cognitive response
Irritant characteristics
Psychological mediating factors
Psychosomatic response
Figure 2
.
Main principles of mental health management
Principles of mental health management
QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS UNDER HIGH PRESSURE 182
CURRENT STATUS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS
Status analysis
At present, the college students in China are mainly in the age range of 16 to 22 years old. At this time, college students' physical functions are mature already, but their psychological development has not yet reached the stage of maturity, and their emotions are fluctuant and unstable (R. Mosher & Desrochers, 2014). On the whole, the psychological health of most college students in China is relatively normal. However, with the continuous development of social economy, social competition is becoming fiercer, and college students are facing increasing academic and social pressures. The proportion of college students with psychological problems or mental disorders is getting higher and higher, and it is increasing year by year, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3
.
Proportion of college students with
mental health problems in 2014-2018
Figure 4
.
The main pressure faced by
contemporary college students
At the same time, there are many sources for the psychological stress and problems of college students. Through investigation we found that the most important source is their worries concerning their personal future and employment; second, academic problems and interpersonal relationships are also important sources that can easily cause psychological problems of college students.
Cause analysis
The causes for the psychological stress of college students can be divided into the following aspects:
(1) Individuals. In China, the whole society pays great attention to college students, and places high expectations on them. They are regarded as the hope of the country, so they are prone to complacency under such great attention. At the same time, the self-control ability of college students needs to be improved. When facing various stress and psychological problems, college students themselves do not have enough ability to cope with them in a timely and effective manner, and this might cause psychological obstacles easily.
(2) Families. Before college, families often give college students great support; but after entering college, they have to live by themselves, so when difficulties occur, they are prone to psychological fluctuations (Richek, 1970). In addition, the economic condition of the family and whether the family is harmonious also have a great impact on the psychology of college students.
(3) Schools. College students spend their times studying and living on campus, and the school management systems, the teachers' teaching level, and their interaction with classmates would all have important and direct impact on the psychological status of college students (Vaillant & Gerber, 1996). If the schools do not pay enough attention to their
psychological health conditions or the
understanding is not sufficient, it can easily lead to psychological problems in college students.
(4) Society. College students are facing increasingly fierce competition after leaving the college. At the same time, the requirements of all
professions and trades for college students’
comprehensive qualities and abilities are constantly increasing, so they have to continuously improve their overall quality to have the opportunity to gain a foothold in society in the future, which would bring certain psychological burden and pressure to college students (Gerin, 2003).
12.3
14.6
20.5
32.6
35.4
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Pr
op
or
ti
on
Year
80.3
77.2
61.5
49.3
40.2
Personal future and employment School work Interpersonal relationship Love problem Economic problem
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Pr
o
p
o
rt
io
n
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183
STATISTICAL INVESTIGATION AND EMPIRICAL
RESEARCH ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH
MANAGEMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS UNDER HIGH PRESSURE
Sample selection and research methods
In Qingdao university town, questionnaires were randomly distributed to students from ten colleges and universities, and the obtained data was analyzed using statistical methods. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed, and 590 valid questionnaires were returned, with an effective rate of 98.3%. Among the respondents of these valid questionnaires, there were 304 male college students and 286 female college students. The male-to-female ratio is shown in Figure 5.
The questionnaire has three parts: the first part is the college student stress scale, which mainly measures the psychological stress of college students; the second part is the life satisfaction scale, which mainly reflects the degree of satisfaction of college students to their current living conditions; the third part is the psychological resilience scale, which mainly includes three dimensions of optimism, strength and toughness.
Figure 5
.
Gender composition of sample
selection
Analysis of empirical results
(1) Influence of family income. During
investigation, it’s found that the family income of
college students would have a great impact on their psychological stress and life satisfaction, therefore,
the family income of college students is considered as a key factor in the analysis.
According to the statistical analysis of Table 1, in terms of different family income levels, the p-values of the mean value of psychological stress, the psychological resilience, and life satisfaction are all less than 0.01, indicating that the differences are significant. Generally speaking, the higher the income level, the lower the psychological stress, and the degree of life satisfaction increases with the increase of family income.
By further analyzing the correlations between attitude of life expenditure, psychological stress, life satisfaction, and psychological resilience we can see
that, college students’ attitude of life expenditure is
significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction and psychological resilience; and it is significantly negatively correlated with psychological stress.
(2) Correlation analysis. SPSS16.0 was used to perform regression analysis on the three different dimensions of psychological resilience and life satisfaction. The specific results are shown in Table 3.
According to the data in Table 3, it can be seen that the p-values of toughness and optimism are both less than 0.05, and both are positive, indicating that these two dimensions will have a significant positive impact on life satisfaction, and it means that if a college student is very tough and optimistic, his/her degree of life satisfaction would be very high. The p-value of strength is greater than 0.05, indicating that the influence is not significant enough.
Next, SPSS16.0 was adopted to conduct regression analysis on psychological stress and life satisfaction, and the specific results are shown in Table 4.
According to the data in Table 4, it can be found that the p-value of psychological stress of college students is less than 0.05, and the sign is negative, which indicates that psychological stress has a significant negative impact on college students' life satisfaction. High psychological stress will reduce
college students’ satisfaction for life. Therefore, to
ensure healthy growth of college students, colleges and universities should formulate targeted measures to continuously alleviate the psychological stress of college students, so as to promote the healthy development of college students.
QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS UNDER HIGH PRESSURE 184
Table 1.
The difference test of psychological stress, life satisfaction and resilience under different
income conditions
Family monthly income Mean value Standard deviation F
Mean value of total pressure
<5000 1.5568 0.48526
3.157**
5000-10000 1.6972 0.51253
10000-20000 1.7015 0.47715
>20000 1.6024 0.42637
Toughness
<5000 3.0583 0.39664
3.916**
5000-10000 3.2961 0.40186
10000-20000 3.3574 0.69715
>20000 3.1587 0.72855
Strength
<5000 3.2531 1.00354
3.684**
5000-10000 3.1947 0.56412
10000-20000 3.4069 0.57768
>20000 3.5114 0.61529
Optimism
<5000 2.9984 0.70831
5.096**
5000-10000 3.1857 0.69642
10000-20000 3.3065 0.67814
>20000 3.4498 0.68643
Overall life satisfaction
<5000 17.58 4.748
3.021**
5000-10000 19.65 4.926
10000-20000 18.34 5.531
>20000 19.75 5.248
Table 2.
The correlation between the attitude to expenditure and life satisfaction, psychological
pressure and psychological flexibility
Life satisfaction Psychological stress Toughness Strength Optimism
Attitude to expenditure 0.258** -0.316** 0.206** 0.217** 0.164**
Table 3.
Regression analysis of different dimensions of psychological resilience and life satisfaction
Non standardized coefficient Standard coefficient t Sig
C 1.815 1.075 - 1.8194 0.079
Toughness 1.593 0.601 0.203 2.6351 0.012
Strength 1.086 0.692 0.177 1.6068 0.137
Optimism 2.615 0.446 0.395 6.2884 0.000
Table 4.
Regression analysis of psychological stress on life satisfaction
Non standardized coefficient Standard coefficient t Sig
C 23.065 1.074 - 23.656 0.000
Mean value of total pressure -1.927 0.651 -0.158 -3.081 0.006
CONCLUSIONS
Based on questionnaire survey and statistical analysis, this paper investigated college students from ten colleges and universities in Qingdao university town and adopted the college student psychological stress scale to collect the data, then SPSS16.0 was applied to analyze the data so as to explore the psychological problems of college students under high pressure, and conclusions are drawn as follows:
(1) At present, the psychological health of the vast majority of college students in China is in a
relatively normal state. However, as the academic and social pressures are becoming increasingly heavier, the proportion of college students with psychological problems is getting larger, and it is increasing year by year, and their psychological pressure mainly comes from employment and the concerns about their future.
(2) For college students, the income of their families has an important impact on their
psychological stress, life satisfaction and
psychological resilience. Generally speaking, the higher the income level, the lower the psychological stress, and the higher the degree of life satisfaction.
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significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction and psychological resilience; and it is significantly negatively correlated with psychological stress.
(3) The toughness and optimism in psychological resilience have a significant positive correlation with life satisfaction, and psychological stress has a significant negative correlation with life satisfaction.
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