Social Support and the Psychological Well-being of Academically Stressed Students in the University of Buea

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the effect of social support on the psychological well-being of academically stressed students in the University of Buea. The study was based on the premise that university students often come with a replete of academically stressed circumstances that often also lead to psychological breakdown. A major contention was that social support could serve as a major framework for the psychological wellbeing of such academically stressed students. We hypothesized that social support systems such as parent/family support, peer acceptance, teachers’ support and the availability of learning resources could lead to the psychological wellbeing of academically stressed students. The purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 374 academically stressed students. The instrument used to collect data was the questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using the Spearman’s correlation test. The findings revealed that parent/family support (r=0.160; P=0.000), peer acceptance (r=0.140; P=0.000), teachers’ involvement (r= 0.205; P=0.000), and the availability of learning resources r= 0.417; P=0.000) affected the psychological well being of academically stressed students in the university of Buea. It was concluded that social support has a significant explanatory power over the psychological well-being of academically stressed students. In that case parents and significant others ought to spend time listening to students’ concerns and giving advice to those currently dealing with difficult issues.