Self-concept and its relationship to mental health among students of Alquds University.

This study aimd at identifying the level of self-concept, and the level of mental health among the BA students of Alquds University , and to examine the relationship between these two factors, It also aimed to identify the impact of some variables like: gender, college, place of residence, school year, the family's monthly income, level of education of the mother, level of education of the Father, the order of the individual in the family, health status, level of life stressors, access to courses related to self development , relationship with colleagues, and the relationship with the professors, on each of these two factors, self-concept and mental health, among students of Alquds University . The study population consisted of all BA undergraduate students at Alquds University, for the second semester of the academic year 2009/2010,with the total number of (10057) students, distributed to twelve faculties, while the study sample consisted of (300) students, equivalent to about (2.9%) of the study population , who were selected in a random sample of four colleges: the College of Health Professions, Faculty of Da'wa and Fundamentals of Religion, the Faculty of Engineering, and the Faculty of Law. The number of individuals who returned back the questionnaires were only (294) students. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher used two measures: first: Tennessee measure (Tennessee) for self-concept, and the second: Testing the brief list of mental state (Brief Symptom Checklist), which has been verified and proved in advance. Data has been treated and calculated by using different ways like, the statistical software packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). Averages, percentages, standard deviations, (T test) for the two samples, test analysis of variance (One way anova), and Pearson correlation coefficient (Pearson correlation) and the regression coefficient (Analysis Regression) . Results showed a positive relationship function between each of the self-concept, and mental health dimensions. Mental health level of students has been clearly shown. Psychological symptoms level was low at the largest proportion of respondents, it was, (49%), while the level of symptoms was in the middle with average of (35 %) from the respondents, but high with (16%) of the individuals of this sample. We can figure out the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, followed by hostility as being the most common symptoms among university students. When it comes to thelevel of self-concept, the findings of this study suggest that self-concept was positive among the largest percentage of students; it reached to 53%, while it is negative for 47% of the respondents. As for the impact of variables on each of self-concept and mental health, the results of this study showed the existence of significant statistical differences in mental health levels represented by the Global Severity Index( GSI) depending on the gender variable in favor of females , in other words, females suffer from psychological symptoms more than maleswhile there were no significant statistical differences in the levels of self-concept depending on the gender variables on the overall degree of self-concept, differences were functioning as social and moral dimensions of the self-concept in favor of females. while on the other variables of the study, it pointed to the existence of differences statistically significant in the levels of mental health according to the variable of the stressors levels, in favor of people with too many stressors, while there were no statistically significant differences in the levels of mental health due to the variables of college, academic year and the level of family income. The study also noted the existence of differences statistically significant in the levels of self-concept (within the total self concept) depending on the variable of income level, while there were no differences according to the college, the academic year, and life stressors level. Variables of this study such as: gender, level of stressors, relationship with colleagues and the health status have predicted the mental health of students , while the relationship with colleagues variable has predicted the self concept. In light of these findings the researcher made several recommendations, including the need that the University administration and working staff should improve the mental health conditions, and improve students perception of themselves , and seek to reduce the level of psychological symptoms and specify symptoms of anxiety and aggressiveness among them, by maintaining and developing psychological counseling services, and through the provision of a relaxed atmosphere to study, and reduce the triggers stimulating the atmosphere of tension and violence among students, researchers should do further studies, particularly qualitative studies to identify more deeply the mental health situation and self-concept for university students