- Title
- Mental health of doctoral students in Pakistan: a mixed methods investigation of intellectual and emotional challenges and mental health risk factors
- Creator
- Khurshid, Shumaila
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2023
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The mental health of doctoral students has become a major concern for educational authorities worldwide, while there is little data available on the mental health and the intellectual and emotional challenges faced by PhD students in Pakistan. In a bid to inform effective mental health intervention strategies, and advance doctoral education in Pakistan it is important to acknowledge the mental health setting, the rapid growth in doctoral numbers, the learning and other demands, as well as the cultural context of personal, economic, and environmental supports. Therefore, the current study seeks to explore the prevalence of mental health issues (depression, anxiety, and stress) among PhD students in one region of Pakistan, Punjab, and the relationship between of the issues and the intellectual and emotional challenges, and contributing factors. Aligned with the mixed method and holistic nature of the investigation the study also explored the dimensions of what students consider as important to their wellbeing and the nature and intensity of the emotions they experienced in connection with doctoral tasks. The data collection drew on the 21-item English version of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), several well-established measures of intellectual dispositions, and some new instruments developed for the study. To gain richer insights into lived experience of doctoral students and particularly the emotions they experienced and how these are managed, in-depth interviews were conducted with volunteers from among those who completed the questionnaire. The quantitative data obtained from 248 PhD students, and qualitative data obtained from 21 interview participants revealed above ‘normal’ levels of depression, anxiety, and stress among students with no significant gender differences. Those who are interviewed, a highly anxious cohort, indicated that they are facing a number of issues such as; administrative flaws, financial issues, lack of funding and scholarship opportunities, inappropriate university culture and environment, supervisory relationships, supervisor’s incompetency, lack of resources, lack of research training and guidance, achieving work-life balance, intellectual difficulties, and emotional challenges which are directly linked to certain negative emotions as well as their mental health. The study found that students with a weaker epistemological base and more intellectual and emotional challenges are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and stress. Stressful life events also proved detrimental to the mental health of students. The students who experienced more stressful life events such as increased family responsibilities, personal or family health issues, financial crises, and the death of a close friend were more depressed, anxious, and stressed. Then the system is more focused on publications and the completion of the tasks rather than the intellectual development of students. The negative emotional experiences impaired students’ optimal functioning and endorse social support and multiple coping strategies such as practicing faith and religion, doing exercise, having social gatherings, etc. as their most frequent coping mechanisms. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress were lower among the students who had significant support available nearby to meet their needs. It was concluded that the doctoral students who participated in the current study are facing more mental health issues and intellectual, personal and emotional challenges than they expected which pointed out the traditional practices that are being used are not appropriate to optimise doctoral learning outcomes. There is a need to review doctoral learning practices in a contemporary period. Findings also lead to the direct attention to the mental health of students, as well as to the working environment, and the training of both the students and their supervisor to better manage and understand the intellectual and emotional challenges of the doctoral study, and to make the learning environment more conducive for better learning outcomes.
- Subject
- doctoral; anxiety; stress; PhD students; epistemological; sysmptons; life events; learning practices; emotions; social support; supervisor; students; Pakistan; emotional; intellectual; challenges; Punjab; mixed method; depression
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1470140
- Identifier
- uon:48387
- Rights
- Copyright 2023 Shumaila Khurshid
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 342 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |