Psychological Distress Among Freshmen University Students

Abstract

Psychological distress is negative mental health, which can affect a person directly or indirectly over time. The psychological distress that emerges to the new students was related to the transition period, academic, and non-academic burdens experienced. The sample of this research was 3819 first-year students of Universitas Diponegoro with an age range of 17-22 years (M ± SD = 19.27 ± .637) from the fields of business economics, language studies, social and political studies, medical science, sciences and mathematics, and engineering. Data collection was carried out in 2019. The sampling technique used random sampling. The scale used in this study was the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) (12 items, α = 0.802) to measure psychological distress. Descriptive analysis, One-Way Anova, and Independent sample T-test used in this study. The results of the study found that there were significant differences in the psychological distress status of non-science and science students at Universitas Diponegoro (F = 13.461, p = .000