Mental health as a basic component in well-being among a sample of college students in Algeria

Abstract

The general aim of this study was to test the hypothesis: mental health is a basic component of well-being (WB) as assessed with the self-rating scales of happiness, satisfaction with life, physical health, and religiosity. A sample of male and female university students in Algeria was recruited (N = 400). They responded to the last mentioned self-rating scales in addition to the Arabic Scale of Mental Health (ASMH) and the Arabic Scale of Happiness (ASH). Results indicted that women obtained statistically significant higher mean scores on the ASH, the rating scales of happiness, satisfaction with life, and religiosity than did their male counterparts. All the Pearson correlation coefficients, except one, were significant and positive. Principal component analysis extracted one component in both sexes and labeled: Well-being and mental health. These components accounted for a large percentage of common variance. It was concluded that mental health is a basic component in WB. On the basis of the co-variation between mental health and WB, it was suggested that raising the mental health rate could ameliorate WB and happiness.