Impact of Financial Difficulties on Mental Health Among Research Students of Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

Mental health is one of the determining factors of student life which plays a vital role in achieving desirable goals for better future. In higher education, mental health becomes vulnerable because of the demanding nature of academia. A doctorate is one of the highest degrees one can achieve in the field of education. In research, financial difficulty acts as a major contributory factor for the poor mental health of research students. Research needs financial support to be carried out smoothly and fruitfully. Therefore, fellowships provided by universities or other research promoting institutions act as a support system to research students, lack of which results in interruptions in progress of research work which may cause mental health issues among researchers. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the impact of financial difficulty on mental health among research students of Punjab University Chandigarh, India. For this purpose, a sample consisting of 120 research students was randomly selected from various faculties of Punjab University Chandigarh, India. The research students were equally categorized into fellowship holder and non-fellowship holder groups. An equal number of male and female research students were included under each category (30 males & 30 female) with age ranging between 23-30 years. GHQ-12 (Goldberg & Williams, 1988); Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen & Williamson, 1988); Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, 1996); and Hamilton anxiety rating scale (Hamilton, 1959) were the tools used to assess mental health, stress, depression, and anxiety respectively.