Mental Health and Adjustment of Vocational College Students, Songkhla

Abstract

               This study was a descriptive research to evaluate mental health, adjustment and factors in 314 Vocational College Students, Songkhla . Samples were divided into 2 groups, lower vocational level 1-3 and tertiary vocational level 1-2, all attended school in year 2014. The research equipment consisted of 3 parts including 1) demographic questionnaire 2) mental health questionnaire (Thai GHQ 28) from Department of Mental Health, Thailand, and 3) adjustment questionnaire (with permission of the copyright owner, Ms. Niramol Suwannakhot ). The second and third tools assessed reliability with the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.84 and 0.97, respectively. The data were statistically analyzed for frequency, percent and Chi-square. Results were as following :
               1) 86.30 % of students had normal mental health status, and 13.70 % of them fell into abnormal mental health status.
               2) The students were well-adapted with respect to relationship with friends and school activities. The second most well-adaptation were education, instructors and environment
               3) There was no relationship between personal factor and mental health. But when consideration separated each factor , the data show that gender was related to the physical health with statistical significance at .05 ( 2=15.55, p= .03). Field of study ware statistically involved with social impaired at .05 ( 2=69.75, p= .00). Domicile was associated with mental health status, anxiety symptoms, insomnia and severe depression, with statistical significance at 0.05 ( 2=118.10, p= .00 and 113.50, p= .01, respectively).
               4) There was no relationship between personal factor and adjustment. But when considering each factor separately, the data showed that gender and fields of study were statistically related to friends relationship at .05 ( 2=52.51, p= .00 and 416.38, p= .00 , respectively). There was statistical relation between marriage status and the environment adjustment at .05( 2=229.20, p=.00) . Salary was related with school activities, with the statistic significant is 0.05( 2=65.20, p= .03).
               The results of this research revealed abnormal symptoms of mental health and adjustment in some part of students . Therefore, schools should have a project or a mental health clinic to help students in the future.