Mental Health of Students
Today’s fast moving world, quick tempo of life, business of students with many disciplines, and development of new technologies influence student’s life not only positively, but negatively. The present lifestyle demands to spend as little time on rest and relaxation as it is possible. Students are constantly in a hurry, forgetting about their health and not taking care of their state of soul and mental health. They are too busy to think that they live in the circumstances that are threatening their lives. It is probably for this reason they complain about constant headaches and fatigue.
One can define the following hypotheses about the problem of vigorous physical health:
- Vigorous physical health of college students is lower than of those who are at high school.
- Participation on sports teams and athletic identity is connected with vigorous physical health and is lower in college students.
One can define the following hypotheses about solving the problem of vigorous physical health and protection of mental and physical health:
- Continuous active life style at college and high school can lead to lower rate of negative affect and stress, to higher self-esteem than passive life style.
- Continuous eating more healthy foods and avoiding of unhealthy food and drinking strengthen vigorous physical health (Downs, 2008).
The participants of this study are 395 undergraduate college students (there were 286 female and 109 male students). The age of students was from 17 to 38. Among the students there were 21 % sophomore; 27% junior; 32% senior. 76.5% of students were whites, 10.1% of students were Asian-Americans, 10.1% of students were of Latino origin, and 2.3% of students were African-Americans. As one can see, this research explores mental health of the different students which is its main objective.
The information about college students was collected during the 2008-2009 academic year. The participants made self-report about sports participation history, athletic identity, mental health, and psychological behavior. That self-report was anonymous. The participants were classified as active and inactive, as their lifestyles were different.
It is proved that the college years are the most risky time that can provoke mental, as well as physical health problems. Without a doubt, at present time, the scientists are working on this problem as the most urgent one. Research shows that college students tend to be depressive and can commit suicide, as their reaction on problems is unpredictable. The statistics shows that 52.8% of students experience anxiety.
The students of college face stresses, nervous tension, and depression in their routine lives more and more. Depression had become the normal phenomenon that disturbs student’s pace of life every day. One cannot even think that problems with studies and tense learning can cardinally change their life and lead to mental and physical health problems. It is known that a lot of college students have the bad habits as drinking, smoking, unhealthy eating, overweighting, and unsafe sex.
Students’ studying and overworking make them feel tired, pessimistic, angry, hopeless, slow, unhappy, irritable, sad, and anxious. If they do not struggle with such state, it will cause certain serious complications with physical and mental health. It is not strange that a lot of students suffer from manic depression that is a disease that is evoked by the tense lifestyle and quality of life. It is not easy to live happy rewarding life. However, if one wants to avoid manic depression, he or she should change the attitude to life and to problems. Pain, sufferings, and stress will not help and will only bring the problems with mental health.
Without a doubt, it is necessary to find the protective factors that can provoke positive emotional and physical health of college students. First of all, it is vigorous physical activity that demands a good health and physical training. It was proved that vigorous physical activity increases the synthesis or release of the hormones responsible for mood and the absence of these hormones leads to anxiety disorders.
There are the different hypotheses that vigorous physical activity can protect from the mental and psychological problems, that it can reduce the negative impact (depression, anxiety) on the emotional state. Vigorous physical health protects from chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. The active individuals avoiding junk food and watching TV, following dental hygiene, and having safe sex have vigorous physical health. When it comes to mental health, one should understand that this notion is complex and includes a lot of factors, for example, using seat belts, and lifestyle determine one’s psychological state.
It is recommended to do 75 minutes of physical activities every week. However, the results show that college students ignore physical exercises and prefer passive lifestyle. In America, 35-42% of students perform minimum of physical training. In comparison to the American students, the Canadian ones (44-61% of students) perform physical exercises.
The results of the research showed that vigorous physical activity was defined by such factors as: lifestyle, active or passive way of life, healthy or unhealthy food, and bad habits, positive and negative effects, self-esteem, depression, and stresses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is necessary to mention that this research reveals the connection between the physical activity, athletic identity, sports participation, and physical and mental health in college students. The problem of mental health is the problem that makes people worry nowadays, as even more and more stresses and depression in students can prevent them from the successful studies.
This research that was conducted with 395 undergraduate college students shows that one can solve the problem of vigorous physical health. Downs proposes that continuous active life style at college and high school can lead to lower rate of negative affect and stress, to higher self-esteem than passive life style and continuous eating more healthy foods and avoiding of unhealthy food and drinking strengthen vigorous physical health.
The results of the research showed that vigorous physical activity was defined by such factors as: lifestyle, active or passive way of life, healthy or unhealthy food, and bad habits, positive and negative effects, self-esteem, depression, and stresses.