First-year at university: The effect of academic employability skills and physical quality of life on students' well-being

Abstract

BACKGROUND: With increasing access at European universities, supporting and promoting the high education, students' mental well-being and generic employability capacities have become priorities, but their respective influences, after an adaptation period of seven months, remain unclear.

OBJECTIVE: Our aims were to analyse the relationships between students' well-being and self-perceived academic employability skills, and other social and environmental factors.

METHODS: Three hundred and twenty-one freshmen students at the end of their first year completed an online questionnaire. Two instruments were used to assess well-being: the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), which explores psychological suffering, and the psychological quality of life subdomain of the Whoqol-bref. RESULTS: Psychological Whoqol-bref scores are linked to the academic employability skills (AES) items of drafting, critical spirit, problem-solving, teamwork, and supervision/direction of others, and has positive effects on AES score and on the following Whoqol-bref domains: physical, social relationships and environmental. Although three of six psychological Whoqol-bref items (ability to concentrate, satisfaction with self, negative feelings) are correlated with GHQ-12 items (sleeping, decision-making, feeling under strain, problem-solving, depression, self-confidence, thinking about self, feeling happy). GHQ-12 score is negatively linked with Whoqol-bref physical.

CONCLUSIONS: For better quality of life, and improved employability skills, innovative activities should be developed to ascertain the sustainable academic's abilities of students.