MENTAL HEALTH AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIRST YEAR UNDER GRADUATE STUDENTS

Abstract

Mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. Mental health is an important and essential aspect which plays significant role in the development of whole life. It is a powerful tonic for development of all cognitive, affective and psychomotor development. A man with healthy mind attains satisfaction in life. A mentally healthy person can be creative and learn new things and take risks for higher achievements. But it is true that today secondary and college students are facing mental health problems due to several reasons. Mental health problems are affecting academic performance of learner and causes of poor academic achievement and a major cause of suicide. Therefore, development of mental health at all levels is very essential. The objective of the present study was to study the mental health and academic achievements of first year undergraduate students of Degree College of Jammu city. A sample of 200first year undergraduate students was selected from different Degree colleges in Jammu City using Simple Random sampling technique. The Mental Health Scale by Dr. Sushma Talesara and Akhtar Bano (2017) was used for data collection. In order to analyze the data, the statistical techniques namely percentage, t-test, Pearson Coefficient of Correlation and ANOVA have been employed. The result of the study shows that 14% of the students indicate the extremely good mental health level. 21.5% of the students indicate very good mental health level. 19 % of the students of first year undergraduate students indicate good mental health level 27 % of the students has the moderate mental health level. 11% of the students indicate poor mental health level. 6.5% of the students indicate very poor mental health level and only 1 % of the students indicate extremely poor mental health level. The results indicate that there was no significance difference in the mental health of first year undergraduate students in relation to gender, family background, type of college, residential background and type of programmed but there was significant difference among the first year undergraduate students between the mental health and academic achievements. Positive correlation was found between the mental health and academic achievements of first year undergraduate students.