Mental Well-Being of Students of Pedagogy at Ho Chi Minh City: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: The well-being of students refers to the psychological, cognitive, and social functioning of the life of students. The Vietnamese undergraduate students are under a great deal of burden and pressure, that makes examining their well-being more necessary than ever. Aim: To examine the Vietnamese Pedagogy students' well-being. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study from April 2018 to September 2018, on Four hundred and seventy-six students (128 males and 348 females) at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education on completed paper-based questionnaires that included demographic items. Our research utilised the Mental Health Continuum Short Form in Vietnamese, which surveyed Vietnamese pedagogy undergraduates. The scale was developed with an aim of creating a brief self-rating assessment tool which accesses three components of well-being: emotional, social, and psychological. The emotional well-being subscale including 3 items is defined as positive effects/satisfaction with life. Social well-being includes social contribution, social integration, social actualisation, social acceptance, and social coherence. Finally, six items represent psychological well-being: self-acceptance, environmental mastery, positive relations with others, personal growth, autonomy, and purpose in life. To achieve this goal, descriptive statistics were used for describing the sample statistics and conclusion. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16.0 was used for data analysis. Frequency, percentage, mean score, and standard deviation were used to analyse descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: A convenience sample of 476 (response rate of 600 questionnaires distributed at 79.3%) Vietnamese students from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education was studied which included 128 males (26.9%) and 348 females (73.1%). The majority of the participants (78.6%; n=372) were born in Ho Chi Minh City, and 21.4% (n=102) were born in other provinces of Vietnam. Regarding their academic year, 50.4% (n=240), 18.9% (n=90), 13.2% (n=63) and 17.5% (n=83) were respectively represents, sophomore, junior, and senior, respectively. The results indicated that Vietnamese Pedagogy students had a high level of psychological well-being (M=2.99, SD=1.12) and emotional well-being (M=2.96, SD=1.26), while their social well-being (M=2.40, SD=1.12) was medium. Conclusion: Pedagogy students in Vietnam had a high level of psychological well-being, emotional well-being, and medium level of social well-being. All results obtained after this research are indispensable to understand the pedagogy undergraduates’ well-being. This research was conducted with the notion that it would act as a stimulant in extending related work to improve pedagogy students' well-being.