Stigma, Personality and Social Support as Predictors of Psychological Well-being among Undergraduate Students
Abstract
This study investigated stigma, personality and social support as predictors of psychological well-being among undergraduate students. Four hundred and thirty participants consisting of 142 (33%) males and 288 (67%) females were selected for this study. The ages of the participants ranging from 18 to 50, with a mean age of 24.90 years and standard deviation of
3.26 years. Four research instruments were used for data collection such as Self-Stigma of Seeking Help scale, Big five inventory, Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale and Psychological well-being. Predictive design was adopted for the study while multiple regression analysis was employed to analyze the data. The result showed that self-stigma did not predict psychological well-being among undergraduate students (â = .046, t=.836, p>.05). Also,
personality factors such as Extraversion (â = .23, t=3.00, p<.05), conscientiousness (â =.34, t=5.93, p< .01), Openness to experience (â =.32, t=4.90, p< .01), significantly and independently predicted psychological well-being, while Agreeableness (â=.01, t=.11, p>.05) and Neuroticism (â =.10, t=1.77, p> .05) did not predict psychological well-being among undergraduate students. It was found that perceived family support (â =.46, t=8.41, p>.05), perceived friends support (â = .52, t= 9.44, p<.05) perceived significant others (â = .65, t=-.167, p<.05) significantly and independently predicted psychological well-being. Generally, the three independent variables explained 18% variation in psychological well-being and this
change in R² was significant, F(3, 420) = 11.10, p < .01. Recommendations are that students should understand their psychological make-ups because this influences their overall well-being. Also, mental health practitioners and government should promote students psychological wellbeing by implementing regular psychological assessment in all the universities across the country.
