Psychiatric Morbidity among Undergraduates: A Review Article

Abstract

Globally, education is a powerful apparatus for engineering and backing up of social change in human societies. It is also imperative for the performance of productive tasks and affecting national development. Tertiary education in the university is an era of transition and experimentation where students are accorded the opportunity to decide what to do without the undue influence of their parents. Higher education is the catalyst, the bedrock, the right house and the dynamic force for the strong socio-economic, political, cultural, healthier and industrial development of a nation. However, university students are susceptible to psychiatric morbidity due to the makeshift nature of university life. Several correlates have been associated with psychiatric morbidity among undergraduate students. Coping strategies refer to the specific efforts (both behavioral and psychological) that people use to master, reduce, tolerate or minimize stressful events and psychiatric morbidity. The mental wellbeing of undergraduates is paramount and disturbance in any form will have adverse impacts on their current and future accomplishments. All stakeholders including parents, government officials and relevant government agencies, school authorities and the students themselves should be concerned about this observation.