Socio-demographic variables, general psychological well-being and the mental health continuum in an African context
Abstract
Age, gender, marital status, education attainment, employment status, and
environmental setting explain different amounts of variance in psychological well-being
and mental health. Inconsistent findings are reported for the socio-demographic variables
in psychological well-being depending amongst others on the definition and measurement
of well-being, context and the nature of the population. The present study explored the
association of socio-demographic variables in an African context using two models that
conceptualise and measure well-being as a holistic integrated and complex construct,
namely the General Psychological Well-being model (GPW) and the Mental Health
Continuum model (MHC). The study was conducted among an African sample in the
North West Province of South Africa. A sample of 459 male and female Setswanaspeaking
adults from rural and urban areas completed measures of general psychological
well-being and the mental health continuum. Descriptive statistics, correlations, crosstabulations
and regression analyses were computed. Findings indicate that socio-demographic
variables play a role in determining holistic psychological well-being in a South
African Setswana-speaking community. Urban living, employment, education and being
married were associated with higher psychological well-being. Rural or urban environmental
setting, followed by employment status, accounted for the greatest variance in
psychological well-being measures. Age and gender were not significantly associated with
well-being. The findings suggest that the current state of African rural living is detrimental
to well-being. Through employment being an index of socio-economic status, the unemployed
experience poor well-being. Future research efforts to explore the mechanisms of
these relationships, and context-relevant intervention programmes are recommended.
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/17370http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-010-9777-2
https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s11205-010-9777-2
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- Faculty of Health Sciences [2377]