IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i23p16284-d994103.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perceived Factors Contributing to the Subjective Wellbeing of Undergraduate Engineering Students: An Exploratory Study

Author

Listed:
  • Muhammad Asghar

    (Engineering Education Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA)

  • Angela Minichiello

    (Engineering Education Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA)

  • Assad Iqbal

    (Engineering Education Systems & Design Department, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ 85212, USA)

Abstract

Engineering education is perceived to be a tough field of study with detrimental effects on the mental health of undergraduate engineering students. High levels of anxiety and depression are reported among this population. Overall, mental health research is often biased toward looking at mental health from a deficit perspective and investigating mental health as a negative phenomenon. This trend also persists in engineering education research. The purpose of this exploratory study, therefore, is to investigate the condition of subjective wellbeing (SWB) of undergraduate engineering students to understand the factors that they perceive as positively contributing to their overall wellbeing in an engineering college environment. Qualitative data from eight undergraduate engineering students interviewed in fall 2021 in the college of engineering at a land grant public institution in the western USA were thematically analyzed. The resulting 11 themes were then re-grouped and conceptualized into 7 factors (faculty support, learning experiences, support environment, financial support, engineering practice opportunities, task organization, and task orientation) for clear mapping, understanding, and explanation. The outcomes from this research have positive implications for the SWB of undergraduate engineering students, with support from their educational institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Muhammad Asghar & Angela Minichiello & Assad Iqbal, 2022. "Perceived Factors Contributing to the Subjective Wellbeing of Undergraduate Engineering Students: An Exploratory Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-19, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:16284-:d:994103
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16284/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16284/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Furlong & Sukkyung You & Tyler Renshaw & Douglas Smith & Meagan O’Malley, 2014. "Preliminary Development and Validation of the Social and Emotional Health Survey for Secondary School Students," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 1011-1032, July.
    2. Peter Greenspoon & Donald Saklofske, 2001. "Toward an Integration of Subjective Well-Being and Psychopathology," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 81-108, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jian-Hong Ye & Mengmeng Zhang & Xiantong Yang & Mengqin Wang, 2023. "The Relation between Intergroup Contact and Subjective Well-Being among College Students at Minzu Universities: The Moderating Role of Social Support," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-13, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aileen Fullchange & Michael J. Furlong, 2016. "An Exploration of Effects of Bullying Victimization From a Complete Mental Health Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(1), pages 21582440156, January.
    2. Seung-yeon Lee & Sukkyung You & Michael J. Furlong, 2016. "Validation of the Social Emotional Health Survey–Secondary for Korean Students," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 9(1), pages 73-92, March.
    3. Lauren H. Naples & Elizabeth D. Tuckwiller, 2021. "Taking Students on a Strengths Safari: A Multidimensional Pilot Study of School-Based Wellbeing for Young Neurodiverse Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-27, June.
    4. Jose A. Piqueras & Tiscar Rodriguez-Jimenez & Juan Carlos Marzo & Maria Rivera-Riquelme & Agustin E. Martinez-Gonzalez & Raquel Falco & Michael J. Furlong, 2019. "Social Emotional Health Survey-Secondary (SEHS-S): A Universal Screening Measure of Social-Emotional Strengths for Spanish-Speaking Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar & Mythily Subramaniam & Esmond Seow & Sherilyn Chang & Rajeswari Sambasivam & Nan Luo & Swapna Verma & Siow Ann Chong & Rob M. van Dam, 2022. "Youth Positive Mental Health Concepts and Definitions: A Systematic Review and Qualitative Synthesis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-17, September.
    6. Aline Riboli Marasca & Maurício Scopel Hoffmann & Anelise Reis Gaya & Denise Ruschel Bandeira, 2021. "Subjective Well-Being and Psychopathology Symptoms: Mental Health Profiles and their Relations with Academic Achievement in Brazilian Children," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 1121-1137, June.
    7. Xu, Wenxin & Shen, Wei & Wang, Shen, 2021. "Intervention of adolescent' mental health during the outbreak of COVID-19 using aerobic exercise combined with acceptance and commitment therapy," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    8. Zi Jia Ng & Eugene Scott Huebner & Alberto Maydeu-Olivares & Kimberly Joy Hills, 2018. "Confirmatory Factor Analytic Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS) in a Longitudinal Sample of Adolescents," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1237-1247, August.
    9. Don C. Zhang & Tyler L. Renshaw, 2020. "Personality and College Student Subjective Wellbeing: A Domain-Specific Approach," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 997-1014, March.
    10. T. Gregory & E. Dal Grande & M. Brushe & D. Engelhardt & S. Luddy & M. Guhn & A. Gadermann & K.A. Schonert-Reichl & S. Brinkman, 2021. "Associations between School Readiness and Student Wellbeing: A Six-Year Follow Up Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(1), pages 369-390, February.
    11. Nansook Park, 2004. "The Role of Subjective Well-Being in Positive Youth Development," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 591(1), pages 25-39, January.
    12. Keith Zullig & Eugene Huebner & Scott Pun, 2009. "Demographic Correlates of Domain-Based Life Satisfaction Reports of College Students," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 229-238, April.
    13. E. Huebner & Julie Seligson & Robert Valois & Shannon Suldo, 2006. "A Review of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 79(3), pages 477-484, December.
    14. Tyler Renshaw & Alex Cohen, 2014. "Life Satisfaction as a Distinguishing Indicator of College Student Functioning: Further Validation of the Two-Continua Model of Mental Health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 319-334, May.
    15. Xin, Sufei & Peng, Haiyun & Sheng, Liang, 2022. "Changes of social anxiety in Chinese adolescents during 2002 ∼ 2020: An increasing trend and its relationship with social change," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    16. Alcides Moreno Fortes & Lili Tian & E. Scott Huebner, 2020. "Occupational Stress and Employees Complete Mental Health: A Cross-Cultural Empirical Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-18, May.
    17. Carmel Proctor & P. Linley & John Maltby, 2009. "Youth Life Satisfaction: A Review of the Literature," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(5), pages 583-630, October.
    18. Rebecca N. Thomson & John S. Carlson & Dylan S. T. Voris & Millie Shepherd & Kim Batsche-McKenzie, 2016. "A Dual-Factor Approach to Exploring Wraparound Outcomes in Children with Serious Emotional Disturbance within Community-Based Mental Health Settings," International Journal of Psychological Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(1), pages 107-107, March.
    19. Shannon Suldo & Michael Frank & Ashley Chappel & Melanie Albers & Lisa Bateman, 2014. "American High School Students’ Perceptions of Determinants of Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 485-514, September.
    20. Claudia Marino & C. M. Hirst & C. Murray & A. Vieno & Marcantonio M. Spada, 2018. "Positive Mental Health as a Predictor of Problematic Internet and Facebook Use in Adolescents and Young Adults," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(7), pages 2009-2022, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:16284-:d:994103. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.