Depression Among University Students: E-Journal of Media & Society
Depression Among University Students: E-Journal of Media & Society
Depression Among University Students: E-Journal of Media & Society
*Correspondent: myraamier99@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: This study is done in order to find the factor of depression among the college
student in Malaysia. Depression among the college student are increasing as it come from
many factor. This study used behavioural theory as the foundations theories for the model
development. The study involved 406 respondents, selected through google form responses
involving all the university students around Malaysia. A structured questionnaire was used for
data collection. All variables were measured through scales previously used by other
researchers. In behavioural theory, state that depression people precisely those who do not
know how to cope with the fact that they are no longer receiving positive reinforcement like
they before. Results shows the data analysis described that respondents having a financial
problem where did not what how to differentiate between wants and need with the overall mean
(M=2.51) and students always spend their money on uncertain things.
INTRODUCTION:
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(2005), depression is connected with decreased quality of life, increased morbidity and
mortality.
University students face numerous difficulties including independent living, academic stress,
peer pressure as well as family problems and this predispose them to depression (Shamsuddin
et. al, 2013). This emotional and mental stresses can influence them to high risk behaviours'
such as increased levels of smoking, increased alcohol and drug consumption, increased self-
injurious behaviours (Serras et. al, 2010). Furthermore, according to Arria et. al, (2009),
depression can also influence their physical and mental health as it has been related with acute
infectious illness, self-destructive ideation and suicide.
Increasing trend found for the commonness of depression among university students as well as
in society. In a recent review, the commonness of depression among university students was
reported to be higher than the general population. Among Malaysian students, the commonness
of moderate depression found 27.5% and 9.7% found as severe or extremely severe depression
(Shamsuddin et. al, 2013). The finding is supported by Angelone et, al. (2011), various risk
factors for depression among university students have been identified such as higher study year,
lower socioeconomic status, poor academic performance and life satisfaction, post-traumatic
stress disorder, physical inactivity, overweight or obesity and sleeping problems.
University students are a special group of people in critical transition from adolescence to
adulthood and one of the most stressful moments in a person's life. This is because of their
potential to give back to the society, as well as in the country, it is significant for them to study
on their depression problem. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the main factor
of depression among university student and society (Muhammad Ashraful Islam et. al, 2018).
PROBLEM STATEMENT
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mental illness. According to Mowbray et al, (2006), there were numbers of students experience
their first psychiatric episode while at college, and 12 to 18% of students have a diagnosable
mental illness. For example, epidemiological studies suggest that 15 to 21 age category (typical
college years) has the highest past-year prevalence rate of mental illness which is at 39%. An
article written by Hyattsville (2004), entitled Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
mentioned that suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults.
Regarding to this facts, depression has consistently been considered a core factor in suicide,
along with substance abuse, adverse life events, family history, a history of sexual abuse,
troubled relationships, and difficulties with sexual identity (Agerbo et. al 2002). Last but not
least, there is another point of view from Chen et al. (2013), where they stated that students
who were living away from their parents (5.1%) were 1.63 times (1.08-2.45) more likely to
develop depression than those who were staying with their parents. This could be due to the
undertaking to a new surroundings and the loss of the familiar environment that leads students
to depress.
Depression
Carillo (2012), stated that depression is a significant mental health concern worldwide because
of high prevalence rates, the chronic nature of the condition and difficult treatment and
recovery.
Depression have been ranked as one of the four major illnesses. This is proven by Sarokhani
(2013). Regarding to the statement, the reason for why depression is happening is because of
the utmost burden that suffered by individuals, families or society. This is reported by the
World Health Oragnization in 2002.
University students are the group of people who are easily to get depression. They need
to adjust to the different environment and variation of social background; in addition, they have
to struggle for academic achievement and social requirement in preparing their future careers
(Uehara et. al, 2010). Those factors can give a big impact to the students especially to new
students as they have to start a new life. According to Yasmin et.al (2017), a study indicated
that relationships between students’ stress and relationship with friends is ranked as the main
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factor of depression. Several studies have shown that having unsupportive friends may be
worse for adolescent well-being than having no friends at all (Güroğlu, Lieshout, Haselager, &
Scholte, 2007; Prinstein et al., 2001). The role of both friendship problems such as social
isolation and poor quality friendships as well as problematic friends (i.e., friends who are
disconnected from school and delinquent friends) in depression is important for us to know.
Sometimes, they have to be someone else in order to be accepted by their new spouse and blend
in with people that they are not comfortable with so that they would not feel left out. Due to
that, university students experience depression by their own friends.
On the other hands, the negative association between social problems and depression was found
in the current study. The social problems reflect “one’s opinion of self in relation to other
people” in term of emotional distance (Lee, R.M, 1995). When students start to live in a new
environment, their social networks begin to change. Living in a new environment where the
ideological setting and surrounding people are different, students have to adapt and make new
friends. This process can also be explained by the Mindsponge concept.
Assuming the self of an individual is also his/her own mindset. Making new friends is
equivalent to accepting new values, so it requires a point of filter. At that point, a friend’s
personality, perception, and opinion will need to get through a filtering process to make sure
whether a self/mindset trusts its new friend/value. If a new friend/value is trustworthy, it can
possibly come closer to the self/mindset. This is when a student has a high sense of
connectedness. On the other hand, if a new friend/value is in conflicts with the self/mindset, it
will be considered as untrustworthy. Functionally, the filter will become thicker, increase the
emotional distance from self/mindset to a new friend/value. In other words, feeling difficult to
have new friends, students may have no sense of connectedness which may result in strong
feeling of hopelessness (Eraslan-Capan, B 2016 and Rice, K.G et.al, 2006) and gradually
contribute to loneliness (Fur, S.R et.al 2001). As loneliness is among the top predictors of
depression (Fur, S.R et.al 2001) and hopelessness is also positively correlated with depression
(Roserbaum Asarnow, J. 1989), the lower social connectedness, the higher depression will be.
This way of explanation may also be compatible with the association between social
connectedness and depression in other population.
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Effect Of Depression
According to Buchanan (2012), individual who suffered depression can suffer diseases such as
diabetes, cancer, heart disease and also Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, emotional and
mental stresses also can influence the individual to engage in alcohol consumption (Weitzman,
2004) and also self-injuries behaviours (Serras, 2010). Not only that, depression also lead to
suicidal ideation (Buchanan, 2012 & Arria, 2009) and the worst one is depression also lead to
suicide (Buchanan, 2012).
Behavioral Theories
Human behavior has nothing to do with internal unconscious conflicts, repression, or problems
with object representations as being said by the behaviourist. In order to study about human
behaviour, principles of learning theory is the most used method by behavioral psychologist to
explain human behaviour where according to behavioral theory, dysfunctional or unhelpful
behavior such as depression is learned.
Traditionally, behaviorists did not focus too much on people's thoughts, perceptions,
evaluations or expectations but behaviourist focused solely on their external and directly
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observable and measurable behavior. The reason on why the behaviourist did so is not because
they were not aware of these internal feelings and thoughts, but because they thought them
relatively irrelevant to the process of influencing behavior, and too difficult to measure with
any accuracy. It turns out that this position was too extreme. Recently, research has shown that
behaviour is influenced by internal events such as perceptions, expectations, values, attitudes,
personal evaluations of self and others, fears, and desire. That is why it is important to take into
account when doing therapy. As a result, old-fashioned "strict" behavioral approaches to
treating depression are not as popular today as they used to be.
Findings To Reveal The Main Factors That Causing Depression To University Students
In Malaysia
Based on researched that we carried out, the main factor that lead to depression among
university students in Malaysia was on the factor of financial problem with the overall mean
2.52 followed by factors of social (M=2.45), factors of lecturers and health state shared the
same mean which is 2.33, friends (M=2.31), state of mind (M=2.18) and the last ranked factors
that lead to depression is fall under the factor of family which is only 2.06.
According to our findings, where we found that the main factor that lead University students
in Malaysia suffered from depression is financial problem. The result for our findings was
supported and proved in a research where the title of the journal is Factors Associated with
Depression among University Students in Malaysia: A Cross-sectional Study which was
carried out by Muhammad Ashraful Islam and et. al (2018) where it is stated in their journal
article that more than three fifth (63.4%) of students came from poor economic condition where
it is of course related to financial matter. Results from logistic regression revealed that students
from poor, not well off, and quite well off background had 15.26 (95% CI: 2.77-84.88), 4.85
(95% CI: 1.01-23.34) and 5.62 (95% CI: 1.16-27.25) higher risk for depression than wealthier
students, respectively.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
According to Abdul Rauf Ridzuan, et al. (2015), methodology is a way to systematically solve
the research problems. In order to complete this research study, the size and sample methods,
the practices and techniques utilized to collect data and the process to analysis data is acquired.
Researchers used Raosoft Simple Calculator software to get the number of sample size.
(Ridzuan, Ridzuan and Ridzuan, 2018). In this research, researcher manage to get 406
respondents.
Age
21-23 195 48.0
18-20 149 36.7
24-26 40 9.9
26 and above 22 5.4
Category of University
Public university 342 84.2
Private university 64 15.8
Location of University
Southern Coast 130 32.0
Central Region 127 31.3
Western Coast 61 15.0
Northern Coast 52 12.8
East Coast 36 8.9
Student Residency
Residence 309 76.1
Non-residence 97 23.9
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3.5-4.0 81 20.0
New Student 61 15.0
0-2.99
The table 1 shows the profile background of respondents among university students in
Malaysia. Based in the findings, the most respondents that answered the questionnaire are
female which 73.4% and 48% are respondent that aged between 21-23 years old. Moreover,
mostly of them are also a residence (76.1%) and public university students (84%) in Southern
Coast (32%). The university students that responded to this questionnaire are also from the
level of CGPA 3 – 3.49 as much (37.9%). Other than that, the most respondent are also was a
university student that ever feel depress (79.1%) can also handle them depress (80.3%).
PART B
a) FRIENDS
Items Means
Based on table 2 shows above, the highest factor of depression that impact from a friend’s
aspect is when the university students lost their friend (M=2.72) and the respondents lead to
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feel depress when their friends are using them (M=2.53). Then, only a few of the respondent
feel depress when their friend think that they are weird (M=2.02) or being bullied (M=1.90).
Overall the average means of the friend’s aspect is (M=2.31). Therefore, its shows that all the
respondents are not agree with the factor of depression is cause by friends.
b) LECTURER
Items Means
Table 3
c) FAMILY
Items Means
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Based on table 4 shows above, the respondent that suffer when their parents had argument is
(M=2.40) and only some of them have a strict family (M=2.25) that lead them to feel depress.
Furthermore, the family aspect of factor of depression are not agree by all the respondent
among university students. It is because the overall of average means is (M=2.06).
d) FINANCIAL
Items Means
Based on table 5 shows, most of the respondents are in depression when they have lack of
pocket money (M=2.64) and also they can differentiate between their needs and wants
(M=2.60). The university students mostly tend to waste their money without knowing it. The
respondent also has to pay for the rent house and hostel fee a lot (M=2.53). Overall of the
average means for the financial aspect of factors depression are the highest which (M=2.51)
and respondents agree that the factor of depression among university students is financial.
a) Social
The data from table 6 below shows that majority of the respondents always being short-
tempered (M=2.65). Most of the respondents also always feel that they have no self-esteem
(M=2.59). The respondents also always isolate themselves from outside world (M=2.52) and
feel irritable and in tolerance (M=2.43) because of the depression. Only a few of the
respondents start to involve in substance use because of the depression. Furthermore, emotional
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and mental stresses also can influence the individual to engage in substances use. Overall, the
average mean for respondent’s level of depression in social is M=2.45.
Table 6: Social
Social Mean
I am short-tempered person 2.65
I have no self-esteem with myself 2.59
I always isolate myself from outside world 2.52
I always feel irritable and intolerance 2.43
I start to involve in substance use 2.00
Overall 2.45
b) Health State
From table 7, we can see that the effect of the health state to respondents is they always feel
tired for no reasons (M=2.81). After that, the respondents always feel anxious all the time
(M=2.48) and have an insomnia (M=2.21). There are a few of the respondents have lost their
appetite (M=2.16) due to depression. Depression also can tend the respondents to hurt
themselves (M=2.00). According to American Psychiatric Association (2013), depression can
lead to variety of emotional and physical problems such as changes of appetite and loss of
energy or become fatigue. Overall, the average mean for respondent’s level of depression in
health state is M=2.33.
c) State Of Mind
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The data analysis in table 8 described that respondents always feel worthless in their life
(M=2.51). Table 8 also shows that respondents have a memory difficulty (M=2.47) and they
always think that they are better off dead (M=2.11). It shows that respondents have mind
disorders (M=1.95) and that always effect their studies. A few of the respondents sometimes
heard a mystery voices in their head (M=1.87). Depression also lead to suicidal ideation
(Buchanan, 2012 & Arria, 2009) and the worst one is depression also lead to suicide
(Buchanan, 2012) Overall, the average mean for respondent’s level of depression in state of
mind is M=2.18.
CONCLUSION
Based on the table, the mean score achieved for all respondents on financial problem the highest
mean for depression among the college student in Malaysian is a financial problem(M=2.52)
followed by factors of social (M=2.45), factors of lecturers and health state shared the same
mean which is 2.33, friends (M=2.31), state of mind (M=2.18) and the last ranked factors that
lead to depression is fall under the factor of family which is only 2.06. It shows that financial
problem is the main factor for the depression among the college students as they cannot
differentiate between want and needs and they tend to waste their money on uncertain things.
According to the behavioural theory, depressed people typically have a heightened state of self-
awareness about their lack of coping skills that often leads them to self-criticize and withdraw
from other people. Based on the Lewinsohn’s theory, he explains the development of
depression for some individual where they did not pay much attention to people's thoughts,
perceptions, evaluations or expectations and instead focused solely on their external and
directly observable and measurable behaviour.
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