Mental health and life satisfaction in university students: A correlational study

Abstract

Introduction: Mental health during higher education is a topic of increasing interest and concern in today’s society. During this stage, students face higher levels of academic stress, the pressure to meet academic and social expectations, adaptation to a new environment, and the management of personal independence. These factors could have an impact on their mental health. Objective: To determine ifmentalhealth is significantly related to life satisfaction in university students majoring in nursing. M ethods: The approach was quantitative, the design was non-experimental, and the study type was cross-sectional descriptive correlational. The sample consisted of 121 students who were administered the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Life Satisfaction Scale, both instruments with adequate content validity and reliability levels. Results: Preliminarily, it was found that students were characterized by having a low level of anxiety; however, they exhibited moderate levels of depression and stress. Similarly, a statistically significant relationship was found between depression, anxiety, stress, and life satisfaction (p<0.05). Conclusions: Mental health is significantly related to life satisfaction among university students in the nursing profession. Therefore, universities must teach students self-care and emotional self-regulation strategies.