MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS AND COLLEGE ADAPTATION IN HONDURAN STUDENTS: AN ANALYSIS OF GROUPS WITH DIFFERENTIATED ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Higher education demands from their new students the necessary maturity to adapt and adopt their responsibilities as new members of the university community. This adaptation process occurs in a stage of complex changes. Therefore, a significant number of students present high probabilities of occurrence of stress, anxiety, and depression. Thus, an investigation carried out from two Honduran student groups with differentiated academic performance is presented, with the purpose of analyzing the relationship between common mental disorders and university adjustment. This research is developed with a quantitative approach of a descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional nature. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and the Academic Experience Questionnaire reduced version (QVA-r) were applied in a total sample of 871 students belonging to the National Autonomous University of Honduras. The results indicate negative and statistically significant associations between the dimensions of mental health disorders and university adjustment. In addition, there are differences in the study variables when contrasting groups with low and high academic performance, mainly regarding the dimensions of university adaptation related to career and study. Finally, we discussed the implications of the findings for the educational field and, above all, for the delivery of psychopedagogical guidance in higher education.