Well-being and health perception of university students in Portugal: the influence of parental support and love relationship

Abstract

Background The mental health of university students has been the subject of great attention from scientific investigations, not only to provide contextualised information, but additionally since high levels of well-being predicted a quality education. This study aims to evaluate the perception of well-being and health of university students, exploring the psychometric properties of the Well-being and Health Perception Scale (WbHPS) and analysing the influence of sociodemographic variables. Participants and procedure A questionnaire was applied to a representative sample of 840 university students in Portugal stratified by year of academic attendance and scientific area of study. The WbHPS consists of 5 items measured on a 5-point Likert scale. We considered as explanatory variables the year of study and scientific area, sex, age, love relationship, professional situation and BMI. Results The WbHPS showed good psychometric properties, indicating the presence of an explanatory factor of 58.45% of variance and a good internal consistency (α = .81). The obtained results identified WbHPS as being independently associated with being in a love relationship, having a normal weight and not being displaced after starting at university. Conclusions It is necessary to (re)think about disease prevention and health promotion actions in higher education, with psychosocial interventions that truly reflect on the well-being and health of university students.