Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders Among University Students in Benue State, Nigeria

The increasing rate of mental disorder among adolescents has necessitated the need for research on the prevalent rate of the various mental health disorders among university students of Benue State. The study investigated the prevalence rate of the different forms of mental health disorders among university students in Benue State, Nigeria. Three research objectives guided the study, which employed a descriptive survey design with a total population of 12,339 students. A sample size of 387 respondents was selected using random sampling techniques. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire titled “Mental Health Available (MHA).” The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation with the aid of Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Findings revealed that anxiety (3.2), post-traumatic stress (3.2) and depression (2.6) were the most emerging mental health disorders among university studies in Benue state with lesser disorder of Schizophrenia (2.4) and eating disorder (2.1). The common factors responsible for mental health disorders among university students in Benue State were identified as poverty (3.17), crisis (3.20), drug abuse (3.52) and environmental conditions (3.0). The result revealed that majority of respondents were not aware of the signs and symptoms of mental health disorders which include Exaggerated or unusual beliefs (2.6), difficulty sleeping (2.1), Problems with concentration and memory (2.4) but indicated that, they were aware of ideation suicidal (3.3) and problem with inconsistent schooling (3.3). Based on this finding, different forms of mental health disorder exist among university students in Benue state which might be caused by poverty, drug abuse and crisis in which majority of the students are unaware of the numerous signs and symptoms of mental disorder, therefore, it is essential to create an awareness program among the students on the need to identify the signs and symptoms for the purpose of prevention and early detection of mental disorders. Therefore, the study recommends implementation of mental health awareness programs for students in Benue state to create an awareness level of the early signs and symptoms of mental health disorders.