Exploring Resilience, Well-being, and stress in University students: A cross-national Mixed methods analysis between the UK and Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Globally, university students are increasingly stressed, due to high academic workloads, financial, familial, and social responsibilities, which negatively impact their well-being. University support services are unable to cope with the increased demands. To better understand how to address this situation, it is important to examine the relationship between stress and well-being in university students of diverse cultural backgrounds with the view to identifying ways to mitigate their stress. It is also crucial to investigate psycho-social moderators of this relationship and better understand some existing interventions. For example, there are current gaps in the mental health literature regarding the effectiveness of resilience interventions on the well-being and stress levels of on-campus undergraduate and postgraduate university students. Additionally, limited research has explored students’ subjective perceptions of well-being and stress, and moderators of the stress-well-being relationship outside of western countries. This thesis employed three interrelated mixed methods studies to address these research gaps. Chapter 2 is a systematic review that investigated 47 quantitative research studies examining the effects of resilience interventions on the resilience, stress, depression, and anxiety of students. The eligible studies were from 19 countries and included several research designs, although no research was conducted in Saudi Arabia (SA), demonstrating the under-representation of this country in the mental health literature. Results indicate that there is limited evidence of positive effects on depression, but stress and anxiety could be reduced following interventions. Data on well-being data was inconclusive. This study included the first systematic review on the effect of resilience-based interventions on well-being and mental health, featuring several study designs and focusing on higher education students. Chapter 3 is a qualitative study utilising semi-structured interviews. These interviews were conducted with 13 SA and 13 UK students to examine their perceptions of stress, mental health, and well-being. SA and UK-based students had similar responses regarding definitions of stress, mental health, and resilience. However, there were some differences, as SA-based students reported using religious coping as a stress coping method. In addition, within the Saudi sample, some participants noted that being the eldest child in the family was a stressor related to increased responsibilities. This study was the first to compare the perceptions of resilience, mental health, and stress among Saudi and UK university students across all study levels and disciplines. Building on Chapter 3, Chapter 4 is a quantitative survey-based study between SA and UK university students. It aimed to examine whether social support, belonging, family relationships and religious coping moderate the relationship between stress and well-being. Recruited participants included: 163 UK home students, 93 Saudi students in the UK, and 55 students studying in Saudi Arabia. Increased stress among university students was significantly associated with lower well-being levels in all participants. However, there was not much evidence for moderation. However, all moderators positively affected well-being. This study was the first to examine social support, belonging, family relationships, and religious coping as moderators between undergraduate and postgraduate SA and UK students representing various disciplines of study. By addressing the gaps in the literature and highlighting the relationship between stress, resilience, and well-being in diverse cultures, these findings have implications for the development of future well-being interventions. Although this thesis makes essential contributions to the cross-cultural mental health and well-being literature, it is not without limitations. These include issues with the representation of SA national students, assumptions of homogeneity in UK student samples, and an unbalanced gender distribution, which future research should address.