A comparison study: Psychological well-being and depression in Iranian and Indian college students

Abstract

Depression is one of the most common disorders mentioned in different societies and cultures. Stressful environments, especially places like universities that shape one's future, are more important and increase students' incidence of disorders. The prevalence of such a disorder is estimated between 10.54 and 62.9%. It is obvious that depression causes disruption in the health of the society and especially the students who are among the privileged class of the society and the future makers of the society. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors related to the incidence or exacerbation of depression in students studying at Mysore-India and Ferdowsi Universities in Mashhad. In this study, which was conducted to investigate the well-being and depression of students at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and the University of Mysore-India, 378 Iranian students and 98 Indian students were randomly selected using the formula proposed by Borg and Gall (1989). For this purpose, after preliminary studies on 30 students, psychological well-being test (PWB) and mental disorders test (DASS21) were performed on the main sample with the aim of diagnosing mental disorders. Data were analyzed using correlation and analysis of variance (MANOVA) statistical methods. The results showed a significant difference between mental disorders as well as psychological well-being between Iranian and Indian students.