FAMILY COHESION, INTERPERSONAL DIFFICULTIES AND MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Back to Page Authors: Narmeen Ali

Keywords: family cohesion, interpersonal difficulties, mental health problems, university students

Abstract: Cohesion has an exact association with family functioning and enmeshment (togetherness) on one side and disengagement (separateness) on the other. Family cohesion can apprehend as a concerned association that family members have with each other and an affirmation of association inside the family. Family cohesion, assigned as the level of congruity or sympathetic or emotional attachment that relatives have toward each other, and it was seen to be associated with relational well-being and feeling of comfort in the young generation. The cross-sectional research design was used by the researcher to answer the research questions. A stratified sampling technique was used to collect the data from the participants. The data was collected equally from the males and females of different universities and different departments of Lahore, Pakistan. A self-report questionnaire was developed of given literature and which were found to be associated with family cohesion, interpersonal difficulties and mental health problems of university students. The demographic information included age, gender, university’s name, class, family system, parent’s education, parent’s profession, number of siblings and birth order. Correlation shows the negative relation between balanced cohesion and interpersonal difficulties, while interpersonal difficulties have a highly positive relationship with mental health problems. And mental health problems have also a negative correlation with balanced family cohesion. Gender, Family System, Depression and Anxiety are the significant predictors of interpersonal difficulties scale in university students. And gender showed a significant difference regarding family cohesion and interpersonal difficulty scale; as women reported more interpersonal difficulties than men.