Study of Personality Factors and Family Problems as Determinant of Mental Health amongst College Students

While all students face a range of mental health concerns, it is important to consider undergraduate students as a distinct group. Because these students face a unique set of circumstances which play an intricate role in the manifestation of mental health problems. Thus the aim of the present study was to determine the effect of different personality factors and family problems on mental health of college students. The participants were 225 (age range 18-21 years) students, randomly taken from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh and Albarkaat Public School of Aligarh. A set of questionnaires namely NEO-Five Factor personality Inventory developed by Costa & McCrae (1992), Youth Problem Inventory used for measuring family problems developed by Sandhya Sharma (1979) and Mental Health Inventory (Jagdish & Srivastava, 1983) were used. Results of multiple regression analysis (step-wise) revealed that amongst all personality factors extraversion found to be significant predictor for positive self-evaluation; openness emerged as a significant predictor for perception of reality, agreeableness for integration of personality. Similarly, extraversion and conscientiousness significantly predict environmental competence dimension of mental health among students. However, family problems predict only two dimensions of mental health i.e. positive self-evaluation and environmental competence. Furthermore findings of t-test revealed that both male and female group of students differ significantly on extraversion, openness and agreeableness factors of personality. They also significantly differ on total mental health including integration of personality and environmental competence dimensions of mental health. But only on family problems no gender difference found. Present findings can be concluded as early detection for indications of mental health problems and understanding factors such as family problems and different factors of personality among students would promote better understanding of mental health in future.