Evaluation of psychopathological patterns among students of two African universities

Abstract

Although mental health disorder is reportedly prevalent and persistent among university students very few studies have attempted a comparison of students from different geographical settings within African. Thus, this study sought to explore the psychopathological indices of students from two African universities using the Awaritefe Psychological index (API). The API is a standard instrument for the appraisal of the severity of general psychopathology and assessing the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity, its seven sub scales measure symptoms indicative of disorder in sleep, intellect, sensation of movement, mood, head, alimentary tract and general well being. A total of 746 students (mean age=21.71, ± =3.98), 394 (M=214, F=180) and 352 (M=94, F=258) randomly drawn from the University of Benin, Nigeria and University of Limpopo, South Africa 95 96 respectively were involved in the study. The study found South African students to have a higher psychopathological index compared to Nigerian students (X2= 50.21; P<0.001). Female students irrespective of nationality were found to be significantly higher on scores on psychopathology compared to their male counterparts (t = 243.85; P<0.001). The findings of this study provide preliminary information on the psychopathological indices of students from two African universities. It calls for further investigations to unravel possible reasons for the disparity between Nigerian and South African Students as well as understanding female students’ vulnerability to psychopathology with a view to providing ameliorative measures.

Keywords: Psychopathology, Nigeria, South Africa, university students.