Indagine su alfabetizzazione sulla salute mentale e disagio emozionale su un campione di studenti universitari italiani

In recent years, mental health has become a topic of discussion both in scientific literature and in public opinion. However, the spread of this topic does not guarantee its full understanding and awareness. Numerous requests for help, in fact, go unaddressed or inadequately heard. The aim of this study was to investigate the state of mental health literacy and emotional distress in a sample of Italian university students, who, as widely reported in the literature, appear to represent a segment of the population particularly affected by psychological difficulties, especially depressive and anxiety-related disorders. These issues seem to be associated with multiple factors, such as the typical transitions of young adulthood, lack of education on the topic, the recent Covid-19 pandemic, and the stress generated by university life. Our study was conducted on a sample of 207 university students aged between 19 and 43 years (mean=23.16; sd=3.30) from various regions of Italy. The instruments used included the MHLS to measure the level of mental health literacy, the K-10 to analyze perceived psychological distress, the PHQ-9 to detect depressive symptoms, the GAD-7 to assess anxiety symptoms, the GHQ-12 for general well-being, and the WHO-5 to measure quality of life. The results show a good level of mental health literacy among the students in our sample and a mild level of distress. Our findings indicate a strong competence regarding mental health in our sample but also a general level of distress that requires monitoring.

L’argomento della salute mentale è negli ultimi anni al centro della discussione sia in letteratura sia per quanto riguarda l’opinione pubblica. Il processo di diffusione del tema non ne garantisce tuttavia la piena comprensione, di conseguenza sembra essere difficile riconoscere di avere un problema di questo tipo e chiedere aiuto. Il presente studio si propone di indagare lo stato dell`alfabetizzazione della salute mentale e il disagio emotivo in un campione di studenti universitari italiani, come visto in letteratura sembrano infatti una fetta di popolazione particolarmente colpita da problematiche problemi di tipo psicologico, specialmente disturbi di tipo depressivo e di carattere ansioso. Le motivazioni di queste problematiche sembrano risiedere in molteplici fattori come le transizioni tipiche dell’età del giovane adulto, la carenza di educazione sul tema, la recente pandemia da Covid-19 e lo stress generato dal percorso universitario.