Impact of Mental Health on Personal Growth Initiative (PGI) among University Postgraduates

Abstract

This study intends to explore the impact of mental health on personal growth initiative among university postgraduates. Personal Growth Initiative (PGI) is an active and intentional engagement in growth process and changing and developing as a better person. Mental health is defined as a syndrome of symptoms of both positive feelings and positive functioning in life. The study was conducted on a sample of 960 postgraduates from three state universities of Haryana state in India i.e. Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak and Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa. The data was collected through two research instruments i.e.  Personal Growth Initiative Scale-II by Robitschek et al (2009) and Mental Health Continuum-Short Form by Keyes et al (2009). The response rate of filled in questionnaire was 85% (out of 960, 818 questionnaires were completely filled in). The reliability and validity of the two instruments were established in Indian context. The Cronbach alpha coefficients for PGIS-II and MHC-SF were 0.741 and 0.771 respectively and both the scales were found to have valid factor structure in Indian context.  Findings indicated that overall personal growth initiative and its three domains except ‘using resources’ had significant positive relationship with mental health.  Further mental health found to have significant impact on total PGI through its psychological well-being dimension by explaining 9.7% of variance in overall PGI. Moreover, it was examined that psychological well-being dimension of mental health had significant impact on three dimensions of PGI i.e. ‘readiness for change’, ‘planfulness’ and ‘intentional behaviour’.  Further, it was revealed that 3.2%, 8.1% and 12% variance in  ‘readiness for change’, ‘planfulness’ and ‘intentional behaviour’ was accounted for by psychological well-being dimension of mental health. From the findings, it can be concluded that psychological well-being domain of mental health was the most powerful predictor of total PGI and its three aspects viz. Readiness for Change, Planfulness and Intentional Behaviour. Social and Emotional well-being domains of mental health did not have any significant impact on total PGI as well as its different aspects. Thus, it can be said that psychological well being or fitness inspires an individual to get ready for change in the behviour through appropriate planning and intentional engagement in the self-change process and capitalizes on opportunities for this personal development. The implications of the study were discussed later on.

Key Words- Personal growth initiative, Mental health, University postgraduates.