EXPLORING THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF MENTAL ILLNESS AMONG RESEARCH STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

Mental illness is a growing issue all over the world and is not being properly addressed, especially in developing countries. If not countered, mental illness can have devastating effects leading to poor human health and sometimes even loss of life. Recently, (Kirkbride et al., 2024) provided a roadmap to address the social factors associated with mental illness among marginalized groups. Based to this, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence and socio-economic determinants of mental illness among research students in different universities of Pakistan. For this purpose, a questionnaire was developed using three different valid and reliable surveys, namely, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), gradSERU survey 2021, and Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). This survey included five different sections to collect the information regarding demographics, mental illness, institutional determinants, financial determinants and social support determinants of mental illness. Three different aspects of mental 
illness were measured, namely, stress, anxiety and depression. The sample size of our study included 178 research students from 11 different universities of Pakistan. The data was analysed through descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis and cross-tabulation. The results revealed that the major determinants of mental illness were found out to be financial constraints, supervisor guidance issues, lack of research knowledge and some personal issues such as travelling, poor diet, inability to balance between job/family and research work. At the end some policies were suggested in order to improve the mental well-being of research scholars.