Psychological Wellbeing Among Undergraduates Of Higher Learning Institutions In Malaysia

Abstract

 Psychological wellbeing is an important aspect of a student’s life that has been garnering a lot of attention lately. Under the recent Covid-19 pandemic condition and the mandatory quarantine, depression, anxiety, stress and other psychological illness have been reported to have escalated among adults and children alike. Malaysian National Institute of Health in their National Morbidity & Health survey report 2019 stated that 2.3% of population is found to be displaying symptoms of depression and a whopping number of 424,000 children were also found to be the same. This study was undertaken to generate a profile that represents indicators of optimal functioning among students of higher learning institutions using the PERMA model with its five elements: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment. A sample of 308 students from private and public higher learning institutions in Malaysia were selected using a simple random sampling technique.  Data was collected online using google form and analysed using SPSS. Findings indicated that Malaysian undergraduates were operating at a sub-optimal functioning level and experiencing depression. There is a need for our higher learning institutions to have good intervention strategies in place to improve students’ psychological well-being.