Current trends in West African universities, students’ psychological distress, and quality of life: a quantitative study
Keywords:
Mots clés : Enseignement supérieur, Problèmes émergents, Apprentissage, Détresse psychologique, Qualité de vie.Abstract
Terrorism threats on education in West Africa, massification, student pauperization, unemployment, living environments, university managements, and poor infrastructures have seemingly affected students’ lifestyles, learning, achievements, mental health but also teaching, and learner-instructor interrelationship. In the light of this, it was argued that new difficulties have emerged on university and college campuses. This study aimed to find out the prevalence of the resulting depression, anxiety, and stress among university students in a French speaking West African university and to gauge their general quality of life. Instruments included the depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS-21), subscales of the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale and General Quality of Life (MSLSS), and a demographic questionnaire. Participants were 348 female and male students. Descriptive analyses revealed that 10.05% of the students had levels of depression ranging from mild to moderate, 19.25% had levels of anxiety ranging from mild to severe, and 3.15% of participants had stress levels ranging from mild to moderate. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that students’ depression and anxiety predicted their quality of life. None of the different mean scores between female and male students, however, were statistically significant. Based on the findings, we argued that, although the studied population has psychological distress comparable to that of students elsewhere albeit current issues, cultural and geographical differences, they reported older ages and lower grade point averages (GPA). Psychological distress, quality of life, social, economic factors, and lack of infrastructures impact university students’ health, achievement, and the vision, mission, and quality of higher education.
Keywords: Higher education. Emergent issues. Learning. Psychological distress. Quality of life.
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