PREDICTIVE FACTORS OF DEPRESSION AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A STUDY ON UNIVERSITY KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (UNIKL MIIT) STUDENTS

Abstract

Depression among students has been a main concern to most of the higher learning institution nowadays. Thus, the goal for this research is to predict the causes of depression among Engineering Technology students by case study at the Malaysian Institute of Information Technology (MIIT), Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL). Total samples of 191 were obtained from diploma and bachelor students with a mix of different programs (area of specialization). Questionnaires were distributed to students by random sampling; then, the collected data were integrated into electronics statistical software. A few statistical tests were conducted including descriptive statistics, chi square test and step wise multiple linear regression to fulfill the objectives of the study. Results shown that there was significant contribution between environment, residency and social interpersonal stress towards depression. While considering all the stress factors, relationship with friends was found to be the main contributor to the stress among the students. It was recommended that the university should find ways to offer solutions to the problems and develop proper guidelines to reduce students’ stress towards depression.