Evaluating psychosocial problems among university students in Uganda: Scale development and validation

Abstract

Psychosocial problems among university students occur in a wide variety of settings. Research has shown that these problems often negatively impact on students’ mental health often leading to maladaptive, negative or unhealthy coping mechanisms compromising student academic performance. The resultant mental health problems include emotional, conduct/behavioural, educational, social/interpersonal problems as are often prevalent among adolescents and the youth. Most existing instruments to assess psychosocial problems among university students in the Ugandan setting were developed in foreign American or European settings and not culturally conclusive enough to address the contextual problems of university students in Uganda. Moreover, psychosocial problems as a construct have been rarely researched as multi-dimensional issues