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PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF STUDENTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

Conference Paper · October 2019

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 KỈ YẾU HỘI THẢO KHOA HỌC QUỐC TẾ TÂM LÍ HỌC HỌC ĐƯỜNG LẦN THỨ 6

PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF STUDENTS

IN HO CHI MINH CITY
Kieu Thi Thanh Tra1

Abstract: This article aims to introduce the findings on psychological well-being of 500
students in Ho Chi Minh City. In this research, the 42-item version of Ryff’s Psychological
well-being Scale, which was translated into Vietnamese by back – translation method,
was used to assess students’ psychological well-being. The findings of this research
showed that psychological well-being of the majority of students in Ho Chi Minh City (63.8%)
was at medium level. Among six dimensions of wellness (autonomy, environmental
mastery, personal growth, positive relations, purposes in life and self-acceptance),
students in Ho Chi Minh City had the highest score in personal growth (M = 28.23; SD =
4.99) the lowest score in autonomy (M = 25.70; SD = 4.90). There were positive significant
correlations between these six aspects of psychological well-being, ranging from r = 0.327
to r = 0.516. Moreover, the research’s results confirmed that there was no gender
differences in psychological well-being but there were significant differences in every
dimension as well as in psychological well-being among students with different majors of
study.
Keywords: psychological well-being; students.

1. INTRODUCTION
Well-being is a complex concept which encompassed many social, psychological
aspects as well as personal behaviours related to mental health and subjective happiness.
There are different perspectives on well-being. From the eudaimonic perspective, Ryff
(1989) proposed a multidimensional model of psychological well-being, which includes
six dimensions of wellness: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth,
positive relationships with others, purposes in life, and self-acceptance.
A review of literature confirms that researches on well-being have been increased in
recent years (e.g. Ryff & Singer, 1996; Keyes, Schmotkin, & Ryff, 2002; Chase&
Statham, 2010), especially, most of them which focused on the students’well-being in
educational context, have been conducted from a multi-disciplinary and wide range of
views (e.g Cha, 2003; Chow, 2007; Choi et al., 2016; Zheng, 2016). However, the
studies on well-being were less intersted in Vietnam as according to our literature
review, there are just a few researches, for example, Nguyen Van Luot and Nguyen Ba
Dat (2017) conducted a research on the psychological well-being among left-behind
children of labor migrant parents in rural northern Vietnam, or the another article has
reviewed some well-being models in order to apply in Vietnamese educational context
(Nguyen Kieu, 2017).
Thus, it can be seen that there is a research gap on well-being in Vietnam. So, the
purposes of this article included: (1) identify the current level and status of
psychological well-being among students in Ho Chi Minh City; (2) analyze if there are
any differences in psychological well-being based on gender and students’ major of

1
University of Education in Ho Chi Minh City

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study. Depending on research’s objectives, these hypotheses are proposed: (1) –

Majority of students in Ho Chi Minh City are at medium level of psychological well-
being, assessed by 42-items version of Ryff’s Psychological well-being scale; (2) –
There are positive significant correlations between six dimensions of psychological
well-being; (3) – There is no gender difference in psychological well-being; (4) – There
are significant differences in psychological well-being among students with different
majors of study in Ho Chi Minh City.

2. METHOD
2.1. Participants
500 students from 6 universities and colleges in Ho Chi Minh City (University of
Medicine & Pharmacy, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, University of
Education, National college of Education, University of Economics and Saigontourist
Hospitality college) were solicited in classes by lecturers to take part in this study. All
participants were informed about the study, signed the informed consent and completed
the questionnaire on their own. The detailed sample is described in Table 1.
Table 1. The description of study sample
Aspect Classification Frequency Percentage (%)
Gender Male 251 50.2
Female 249 49.8
Major of study Medicine and pharmacy 162 32.4
Education 163 32.6
Economics and services 175 35.0
Total 500 100.0

2.2. Material
Ryff’s Psychological Well-being Scale (PWB), 42 items version (Ryff, 1989; Ryff
and Keyes, 1995), which was translated into Vietnamese using the back – translation
method to ensure the meaning’s equivalence, is the main seale used this study.
This scale consists of 42 items which was used to measure 6 dimensions of
wellness, including Autonomy (item 1, 7, 13, 19, 25, 31, 37); Environmental mastery
(item 2, 8, 14, 20, 26, 32, 38); Personal growth (item 3, 9, 15, 21, 27, 33, 39); Positive
ralations (item 4, 10, 16, 22, 28, 34, 40); Purposes in life (item 5, 11, 17, 23, 29, 35, 41);
Self-acceptance (item 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42).
For each item, the participants have 6 options ranging from 1 presenting “strongly
disagree” to 6 presenting “strongly agree”. The scores of negative phrased items are
reversed (item 3, 5, 10, 13,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 39 and 41).
In this study, the reliability of this scale (Cronbach’s α) is 0.812.

3. RESULTS
3.1. Overview findings on psychological well-being of students in Ho Chi Minh City
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Table 2. The findings on level of psychological well-being among students

in Ho Chi Minh City
Level of psychological well-being Total score Frequency Percentage (%)
Very low ≤ 84 0 0
Low 84 – 126 17 3.4
Medium 126 – 168 319 63.8
High 168 – 210 157 31.4
Very high > 210 7 1.4
The mean of total score of psychological well-being among students in Ho Chi
Minh City is 160.36, at the medium level, the SD is 21.64 which represents the dispersal
of well-being score. In detail, most of participants are at medium level of psychological
well-being (63.8%), 31.4% students are at high level; just only 1.4% are at very high
level of psychological well-being. Remarkably, the rate of students at low level of
psychological well-being is 3.4%.
Moreover, the analysis based on mean score of each dimension of wellness gives a clear
and more detailed view of psychological well-being among students in Ho Chi Minh City.
The findings are revealed in Table 3.
Table 3. Mean score of each dimension of psychological well-being
Dimension Mean SD
Autonomy 25.70 4.90
Environmental mastery 26.60 4.71
Personal growth 28.23 4.99
Positive relations 27.26 5.33
Purposes in life 26.92 5.26
Self-acceptance 25.71 5.33
In particular, students in Ho Chi Minh City have the highest score in personal growth
(M = 28.23; SD = 4.99) and the lowest score in autonomy (M = 25.70; SD = 4.90).
In addition, to examine the relationship between these six dimensions, the researcher
finds the correlation between the scores of these aspects. Table 4 is the findings on
correlation analysis, which confirm the significantly positive correlations between six
dimensions of psychological well-being among students in Ho Chi Minh City.
Table 4. Correlation analysis between six dimensions of psychological well-being
1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Autonomy -
2. Environmental
0.395** -
mastery
3. Personal growth 0.327** 0.374** -

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4. Positive
0.335** 0.395** 0.366** -
relations
5. Purposes in life 0.437** 0.345** 0.438** 0.389** -
6. Self-acceptance 0.516** 0.402** 0.395** 0.478** 0.471** -
(**): p < 0.01
3.2. Comparison of psychological well-being between male and female students

Table 5. Descriptive analysis and t-test value of psychological well-being

means by gender
Dimension Gender Mean SD t-test
Male 25.90 4.95
Autonomy t = 0.945; p = 0.345
Female 25.49 4.85
Male 26.51 4.62
Environmental mastery t = -0.448; p = 0.654
Female 26.69 4.81
Male 28.37 5.09
Personal growth t = 0.614; p = 0.540
Female 28.10 4.89
Male 27.08 5.27
Positive relations t = -0.726; p = 0.468
Female 27.43 5.39
Male 27.04 5.52
Purposes in life t = 0.520; p = 0.603
Female 26.79 4.99
Male 25.71 5.27
Self-acceptance t = -0.004; p = 0.997
Female 25.71 5.39
Male 160.62 21.62
Psychological well-being t = 0.271; p = 0.786
Female 160.09 21.69
Table 5 shows that there are no significant difference in psychological well-being
mean score as well as each dimension (p > 0.05) between male and female students.

3.3. Comparison of psychological well-being among students with different majors

of study

Table 6. Descriptive analysis and Anova test value of psychological well-being means
among students with different majors of study
Dimension Major of study Mean SD Anova
Medicine and 24.72 4.57
pharmacy
Autonomy F = 5.748; p = 0.004
Education 25.82 4.64
Economics and 26.49 5.29

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services
Medicine and 25.51 5.43
pharmacy
Environmental
Education 26.80 4.37 F = 7.291; p = 0.001
mastery
Economics and 27.42 4.09
services
Medicine and 26.62 4.96
pharmacy
Personal growth Education 28.67 4.71 F = 13.889; p = 0.000
Economics and 29.32 4.91
services
Medicine and 25.58 4.49
pharmacy
Positive relations Education 27.56 5.65 F = 13.891; p = 0.000
Economics and 28.52 5.35
services
Medicine and 25.52 4.66
pharmacy
Purposes in life Education 26.95 5.69 F = 11.238; p = 0.000
Economics and 28.19 5.07
services
Medicine and 24.52 4.99
pharmacy
Self-acceptance Education 26.23 5.34 F = 6.055; p = 0.003
Economics and 26.32 5.47
services
Medicine and 152.49 19.49
pharmacy
Psychological
Education 162.04 21.81 F = 18.530; p = 0.000
well-being
Economics and 166.07 21.33
services

The data in Table 6 confirm that there are significant differences in every as well as
in psychological well-being (p < 0.05) among students with different majors of study.
The mean score of medicine and pharmacy students is the lowest among 3 groups.

4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

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Through this research, it can be found that the psychological well-being of majority
of students in Ho Chi Minh City (63.8%) is at medium level, about one third (31.4%) is
at high level and just a small propotion (1.4%) has very high level of psychological
well-being. Thus, the first hypothesis has been confirmed. Moreover, among six
dimensions of psychological well-being, students in Ho Chi Minh City have the highest
score in personal growth (M = 28.23; SD = 4.99) and the lowest score in autonomy
(M = 25.70; SD = 4.90). Comparing with other study by Lee and Taniguchi (nd)
confirms the cultural differences between Vietnamese, Korean and American students
in the highest and lowest dimensions of psychological well-being based on Ryff’s
psychological well-being scale.
For the second hypothesis, the findings confirmed that among six aspects of
psychological well-being, there were positive significant correlations ranging from
r = 0.327 (autonomy personal growth) and to r = 0.516 (automony and self-acceptance).
As these six dimensions positively correlated, these findings also propose that in order
to improve students’ psychological well-being, it is necessary to pay attention to all
aspects.
Regarding the third hypothesis, no significant gender difference was recored in
psychological well-being as well as each dimension of wellness among students in Ho
Chi Minh City. This result is slightly similar to other findings as no gender difference
was recored in autonomy, environmental mastery, purposes in life, self-acceptance and
females had higher score in positive relations aspect (Ryff and Singer, 1996) but in this
research, the difference score was not enough to confirm a statistical significance.
The last hypothesis has been confirmed as there were significant differences in
psychological well-being as well as in every aspect of wellness among students with
different majors of study in Ho Chi Minh City. Students in Economics and Services had
the highest scores, the second one was students in Education and students in Medicine
and Pharmacy got the lowest score. It can be explained basis of on the characteristics of
each major of study, while students in Medicine and pharmacy had more academic
pressure than others that might lead to their lack of wellness.
This research is limited by the method of sampling and the material. As presented
above, the data were collected in classes by convenience with the support of lecturers
and 500 participants were from three main majors of study at six universities and
colleges in Ho Chi Minh City. Moreover, the 42-item version of Ryff’s psychological
well-being scales, which was juts translated into Vietnamese by back-translation
standardized method, had not been adapted, validiated in Vietnam. These bias and
limitations might affect the results. Therefore, many researches on psychological well-
being, especially in the Vietnamese educational context, are expected to overcome these
limitations.
Despite these limitations, this is one of the first researches on psychological
well-being among students in Vietnam. The findings of this study can provide some
evidences about level and status of psychological well-being among students in Ho
Chi Minh City which are expected to have some useful suggestions for a program on
well-being promotion to enhance happiness and welfare in the Vietnamese educational
context./.

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