Contributors to wellness of university students

Abstract

Wellness refers to the optimal state of being. A review of literature indicated that leisure time physical activity (LTPA), academic stress, leisure satisfaction, and perceived problem solving ability (PPSA) are prominent factors contributing to an individual’s wellness. However, the underlying mechanism of how these factors affect wellness has not been explored. The purposes of this cross-sectional study were (1) to examine the relative contribution of LTPA, academic stress, leisure satisfaction, and PPSA to wellness of university students in Hong Kong; (2) to find out whether gender impacted the LTPA, academic stress, leisure satisfaction, PPSA, and wellness scores. A total of 712 participants took part in this study by completing a questionnaire on a voluntary basis. After data cleaning, 691 cases were used for further analyses using SPSS 17.0 and LISREL 8.7. Findings of this study indicated that university students in Hong Kong had moderate wellness perception (M = 4.09, possible range = 1 -6) and academic stress levels (M = 2.83, possible range = 1 -5). Male students reported higher level of wellness in physical domain while female students had higher level of wellness perception in social domain. Female students also reported higher academic stress in psychosocial aspect. Results from the study suggested that PPSA and leisure satisfaction were the most significant contributing factors to wellness among male and female students but in different order. This study also found that 62.5% of the students did not take part in enough LTPA to the level that could bring health benefit to them. Based on these findings, recommendations were made to promote wellness among university students in Hong Kong.

Date of Award	28 Aug 2014
Original language	English
Supervisor	Bik Chu CHOW (Supervisor)