Philippine E-Journals

Mental Health Status of Student Leaders: Basis for an Enhancement Program

Bernadeth Ballesteros | Raquel Cantos | Henmar Cardiño | Edlyn Joy Espiritu | Marjualita Theresa Malapo | Kristian Robert Vino | Tria Geraldine

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic stimulated the appreciation of the importance of Mental Health in the Philippines, which urged the researchers to conduct this study. This research aims to measure the mental health status of student leaders from two (2) universities in the country and to design an intervention program based on the findings. Twenty-one (21) Psychology student leaders from Emilio Aguinaldo College-Manila, and National University-Laguna participated in this study. The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) was used as the instrument for assessing the mental health status of the respondents. The result shows that the participants are flourishing in Emotional Wellbeing (M=4.45), and Psychological Well-being (M=4.56), while Moderately Mentally Healthy in Social well-being (M=4.36). The researchers also found that 9.5% of the participants have languishing mental health, 19% are moderately mentally healthy, and 71.4% have flourishing mental health. The findings also revealed that there is no significant relationship (r-value 0.003, p-value 0.99) and no significant difference (t-value 1.302, p-value 0.234) between the mental health status of the participants from the two universities, implying that regardless of their university affiliation their mental health status is indistinguishable and similar. Based on the results, the enhancement program entitled "Mental Health and Leadership During Pandemic" was designed and implemented virtually.