Psychosocial Problems of Female Students Living in University Hostels

Abstract

Background: Hostel environment provides an opportunity to socialize among students. This socialization influences behavior of students. Positive variations in behavior promote character building among students and make students ready for upcoming practical life. The negative variations in behavior included laziness among students, irresponsible behavior toward studies, and time-wasting with friends. Objective: To find out the psycho social problems that the students faced in University Hostel. Study Design: Cross-sectional survey-based study. Settings: Study has been performed at the female hostels of teaching institutes of Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS) Jamshoro, and Mehran University of engineering & technology (MUET) Jamshoro Pakistan. Duration: August 2018 to January 2019. Methods: Female students aged 18-40 years were randomly selected as a study population. Students were face to face interviewed for the psychosocial problems including feeling loneliness, homesickness, stress, anxiety, depression, adjustment Issues, relationship and financial stress by using a self -made proforma on basis of previously published literature. Some students given proforma to fill separately as per their wishes. All of the information was collected via that questioner based proforma and SPSS version 26 was used for the data analysis. Results: Majority of both LUMHS (83.9%) and MUET (86.4%) students fell within the 18-22 years age group.  The study found that a significant proportion of both LUMHS and MUET students experienced psychosocial issues, including loneliness, homesickness, and insomnia. Anxiety levels were similar between the two groups. Satisfaction with hostel wardens varied, with a higher rating among MUET students. However, satisfaction with hostel facilities, cafeteria food quality, and security systems was generally higher among MUET students compared to LUMHS students. MUET students also rated the attitude of hostel management more positively than LUMHS students.  Furthermore, the majority of students reported that there were limited and unsatisfactory access to computer, electricity, TV and washing machine facilities, with no significant difference observed between the two universities. Conclusion: Study revealed that, there were frequent psychosocial problems among female students living in hostel of both MUET and LUMHS of Jamshoro. Majority students were satisfied regarding behavior, but not satisfied from hostel facilities. Complete medical facilities, continues round of medical teams should be done specially in hostels in non-medical universities. Emergency and secured travelling facilities should be provide to girl’s students.