To explore how stress and depression associates with wellbeing of university students in Eastern Nigeria by gender

Abstract

Background: Few studies in the past examined student’s health status and lifestyle behaviours, however, none have examined how student’s wellbeing is being influenced by stress and depression among university students in eastern Nigeria. This is the first study in Nigeria to gauge the relationship between students mental health status with wellbeing. The study went further to examined how the relationship of stress and depression transmits through gender among the students. Aims: The aim of this study is to explore the relationship of stress and depression with students’ wellbeing and gender. Method: This is a cross sectional descriptive study. Full time university students were recruited from the department of public health in the University of Calabar, Cross River state Nigeria. Data collection was based on an anonymous questionnaire and the sample size was (n= 291). Descriptive tests and chi-square tests were conducted. Results: The study indicated that female students reported higher stress and depression than their male counterparts. Secondly the study shows that female students had a better wellbeing and health status than male students. Conclusion: This study is the first to gauge the association of stress and depression with wellbeing and gender of university students in Nigeria. The result indicated that though female students reported higher stress and depression than male students however, on the contrary they reported better wellbeing index than their male counterparts that even reported lower stress and depression.