Students' experiences of mental health and studying chemistry at Oxford

<p>This study sought to assess the prevalence of mental illness among undergraduate chemistry students at Oxford, and to build an understanding of the relationship between studying chemistry and student mental health. </p> <p>The data for this study was collected via an online ano...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ye Evans, L
Other Authors: O'Neill, M
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
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author Ye Evans, L
author2 O'Neill, M
author_facet O'Neill, M
Ye Evans, L
author_sort Ye Evans, L
collection OXFORD
description <p>This study sought to assess the prevalence of mental illness among undergraduate chemistry students at Oxford, and to build an understanding of the relationship between studying chemistry and student mental health. </p> <p>The data for this study was collected via an online anonymous survey, distributed to all Oxford undergraduate chemistry students. The survey featured the DASS-21 instrument, and free text questions. Demographic information was also collected pertaining to participants’ year group, gender, and domestic/international status. </p> <p>Participants scored higher levels of mental illness than similar groups. First-year students, female and gender-minority students showed the highest levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. There were no significant differences in levels of depression, anxiety, and stress between domestic and international students. </p> <p>Participants’ qualitative experience of the interaction between mental health and studying chemistry can be described as a balance between the expectations students experience (academic and otherwise) and students’ capacity to meet those expectations. Factors affecting this interaction included: workload; the student-tutor relationship; and pre-existing conditions such as disability and illness. Poor mental health was qualitatively associated with a decreased capacity to learn effectively. </p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:cf677dbe-cd74-4671-afb0-1bc27b485b792022-06-30T14:13:16ZStudents' experiences of mental health and studying chemistry at OxfordThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_bdccuuid:cf677dbe-cd74-4671-afb0-1bc27b485b79Mental healthEducationChemistryEnglishHyrax Deposit2022Ye Evans, LO'Neill, M<p>This study sought to assess the prevalence of mental illness among undergraduate chemistry students at Oxford, and to build an understanding of the relationship between studying chemistry and student mental health. </p> <p>The data for this study was collected via an online anonymous survey, distributed to all Oxford undergraduate chemistry students. The survey featured the DASS-21 instrument, and free text questions. Demographic information was also collected pertaining to participants’ year group, gender, and domestic/international status. </p> <p>Participants scored higher levels of mental illness than similar groups. First-year students, female and gender-minority students showed the highest levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. There were no significant differences in levels of depression, anxiety, and stress between domestic and international students. </p> <p>Participants’ qualitative experience of the interaction between mental health and studying chemistry can be described as a balance between the expectations students experience (academic and otherwise) and students’ capacity to meet those expectations. Factors affecting this interaction included: workload; the student-tutor relationship; and pre-existing conditions such as disability and illness. Poor mental health was qualitatively associated with a decreased capacity to learn effectively. </p>
spellingShingle Mental health
Education
Chemistry
Ye Evans, L
Students' experiences of mental health and studying chemistry at Oxford
title Students' experiences of mental health and studying chemistry at Oxford
title_full Students' experiences of mental health and studying chemistry at Oxford
title_fullStr Students' experiences of mental health and studying chemistry at Oxford
title_full_unstemmed Students' experiences of mental health and studying chemistry at Oxford
title_short Students' experiences of mental health and studying chemistry at Oxford
title_sort students experiences of mental health and studying chemistry at oxford
topic Mental health
Education
Chemistry
work_keys_str_mv AT yeevansl studentsexperiencesofmentalhealthandstudyingchemistryatoxford