Levels of Mental Health Literacy amongst University Students:Findings from a University in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe

Tonderai Masara and Mohd Herbert Zirima
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Tonderai Masara: Mental Balance Series
Mohd Herbert Zirima: Great Zimbabwe University

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 2024, vol. 8, issue 6, 826-837

Abstract: There is an increase in number of people roaming the streets with visibly clear mental health issues in everycity and town in Zimbabwe. With the functional mental health legislations and policies in Zimbabwe, the researcher saw the need to use a quantitative approach, to investigate the level of knowledge on symptoms, accuracy on correct identification of mental health disorders, and level of mental health literacy of undergrad students at Great Zimbabwe University. The research made use of a population of 10,236 Great Zimbabwe university undergraduate students, and Cochran statistics was used to generate a sample size of 371 university undergrad students with an additional 19 more sample participants collected, making a total of 400 research sample participants. Representative and random sampling methods were used with closedended standardized questionnaires (Mental Health Literacy Assessment Inventory (MHLAI). The collected data was presented and analyzed using a descriptive research approach, precisely descriptive statistics. The information was presented in cross-tabulation tables that included gender and level of study. Results obtained showed that, the researcher failed to reject the null hypothesis of the study using the independent test of -.135 and the Mann-Whitney U, Z score of -.129 and concluded that gender did not affect the level of mental health disorders’ symptom identification and mental health literacy levels. An overall totalcalculation of 50.51 percent responses of students are mental health literate, with 42.24 percent correctly displaying knowledge, 67.50 percent positive ways to prevent and 51.60 percent positive attitude. In terms of mental health disorder accuracy, 21.03 percent of male responses were 0.2 percent lower than 21.23 percent of female responses. The researcher concluded by outlining a model magazine strategy to increase mental health awareness in order to improve and make the world a better place. This study is of great significance as it highlights the level of mental health literacy amongst undergrad university students at Great Zimbabwe which can be used to project to the level of literacy in policy and legislation alignment. The study can be used to address the mismatch that exist with the number of unaccounted mental health people at government levels as a continuous alignment to benefit the populace.

Date: 2024
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