Attitude and Motivation towards Mental Health Work in Participants of Mahidol Friends Project, Thailand

Abstract

Mental health disorders are highly prevalent and are a serious problem among university students. Common psychiatric disorders among university students are anxiety, depression and substance use leading to loss of health, economy and society. The most negative outcome is suicide, which has been continuously increasing. There are many mental health problems, but access to mental health services is low. Some university personnel tend to have negative attitudes towards students with mental health problems. Mahidol University addresses the importance of this problem. The Mahidol Friends Project was established in 2014 to provide knowledge about mental health and develop counselling skills and skills of referral practice among both students and university workers including academic and other supporting staff. The objective of this study was to investigate attitude and motivation, and to clarify the relationship between attitude and motivation in mental health work among participants at the Mahidol Friend project between 2014 and 2019.

This study was approved by Mahidol University Central Institutional Review Board. The study used a cross-sectional descriptive design.  Data about personal factors, attitudes and motivation factors towards mental health work were obtained from all participants by using questionnaires. There were two versions of the questionnaire; one for student use and one for staff use. All the questionnaires were developed by the researchers using reliable methods, and Cronbach alpha coefficient values were obtained.  Data were collected using Google form questionnaires which were sent to participants via email and LINE application. Data were presented by using frequency distribution, mean, percentage, and standard deviation. Pearson’s correlation was applied to find the relationship between variables at a significance level of 0.05.

Participants included 39 students and 64 academic or supporting staff who participated in the Mahidol Friends Project between 2014 and 2019. The highest level of attitudes towards mental health work was found among the students (Mean score 3.34, SD 0.32). High levels of attitudes towards mental health work were also found among academic/supporting staff (Mean score 3.15, SD 0.32). Both the students and academic/supporting staff showed a high level of motivation towards mental health work (Mean score, SD: 3.10, 0.29 and 3.03, 0.36; respectively). Attitudes and motivational factors towards mental health work for all participants were positively and moderately associated (r = 0.563, p = 0.000 and r = 0.670, p = 0.000, respectively).

Most of the participants were from the 2019 program. The results revealed high levels of attitude and motivation and its relationships among the participants of the program. It was found that the levels of attitudes of students and staff were slightly different while there was no difference in the levels of motivation. A moderate relationship between attitude and motivation was found, however, this requires further study. This study’s strengths are different from those of other research which mostly focused on students with mental health problems. Its limitation is that there are some missing data from the participants who took part in the project between 2014 and 2017. In conclusion, the attitudes and motivation of participants in all groups should be considered, in order to develop a sustainable system and help the mental health of students.