MENTAL HEALTH AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The study entitled “Mental Health in a Sample of University Students in Lebanon” aims at examining the differences in an important variable, namely mental health, between male and female university students. Mental health is a general trend that aims at preserving an individual’s mental health, their mental functions, as well as to protect them from mental disorders and reduce the rate of occurrence, to attain a healthy personality. To achieve the objectives of the study, the Arabic Scale of Mental Health, developed by Abdel-Khalek (2016) was administered to a sample that consisted of 249 students at Beirut Arab University, from various disciplines, of which there were 114 males and 145 females, of age ranging from 18 to 21. It is worth noting that the scale has been used in a large number of studies in different countries of the Arab World, and demonstrates good psychometric characteristics in Egyptian, Kuwaiti and Lebanese samples. In this study, the reliability coefficient was calculated using a sample of students (n=100), and the coefficient was 0.89, while the alpha coefficient was 0.96. Means and SD were used, as well as t-test to calculate the differences between means in the interpretation of the results. The findings of the study showed that there are no significant differences in mental health between male and female university students. The findings of the study were interpreted in the light of previous studies and the social circumstances of the sample in Lebanon.