Analyses of college students\u27 problems have been made from time to time for various purposes. One of the primary motives seems to have been to use such information to improve counseling services. Both Carr (1) and Stone (4) used the Mooney Problem Check List as the source of information about student problems at the college level. Carr compared the problems of 300 superior college students with 300 inferior students. Although superior students had fewer problems, they had an equivalent number in seven of the eleven problem areas when compared with the inferior students. Superior students were more concerned with long-range problems, while problems concerned with adjustment to college were more characteristic of the inferior group

Bath, John A.

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The Self-Identified Problems of College Students

University of Northern Iowa

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science Volume 65 Annual Issue Article 61 1958 The Self-Identified Problems of College Students John A. Bath Iowa State College Let us know how access to this document benefits you Copyright ©1958 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias Recommended Citation Bath, John A. (1958) "The Self-Identified Problems of College Students," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 65(1), 405-410. Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol65/iss1/61 This Research is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uni.edu. The Self-Identified Problems of College Students By ]OHN A. BATH INTRODUCTION Analyses of college students' problems have been made from time to time for various purposes. One of the primary motives seems to have been to use such information to improve counseling services. Both Carr ( 1) and Stone ( 4) used the Mooney Problem Cheok List as the source of information about student problems at the college level. Carr compared the problems of 300 superior college students with 300 inferior students. Although superior students had fewer problems, they had an equivalent number in seven of the eleven problem areas when compared with the inferior students. Superior students were more concerned with long-range problems, while problems concerned with adjustment to college were more characteristic of the inferior group. Stone's ( 4) analysis of the Problem Check List given to 578 stu-dents in all four classes in a teachers college showed that problem,s concerned with adjustment to college work ranked first in number and seriousness. Least prevalent and least serious were problems of 1) morals and religion and 2) home and family. Sophomores iden-tified the greatest number and juniors the smallest number of prob-lems in the four classes. Women listed a far greater number of prob-lems than did men. Hunter and Morgan ( 3) used a personal interview form consisting of 78 items in seven problem areas. They employed a sample of 100 college men and 100 college women selected proportionately from all four classes. They, too, found problems to be more prevalent among the women students. A significant sex difference in responses was found for 56 of the 78 items. Eleven of the 78 listed problems were identified by one-fifth or more of the total group. Tate and Musick ( 5) restricted their study to the personal adjust-ment problems of 92 college students enrolled in a Marriage and Family Relations course. Of the 98 problems in the schedule, 19 were rated as problems by SO percent or more of the group. Most prevalent problems concerned understanding of, and relationship with, the opposite sex. The particular sample used might explain the latter finding. This study grew out of a course in The Psychology of the Ado-405 1Bath: The Self-Identified Problems of College StudentsPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1958IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE [Vol. 65 lescent at the Iowa State College. During a unit on counseling, some discussion was devoted to ways and means of identifying problems of adolescents. In consideration of a problem check list as one useful instrument, and as an appropriate way to provide the students with. first-hand knowledge of the instrument, every class member filled out a problem check list. The information so collected provided the data for this study. PROCEDURE During the spring quarter, 1957, 139 students enrolled in a course in The Psychology of the Adolescent responded to the Personal In-ventory, College Edition ( 2). The inventory is a listing of 300 briefly stated problems, divided into 10 areas of 30 statements each. The instructions advise the student that there are no right or wrong answers. They are told to blacken one space on their answer sheet for major problems and a second space for minor problems. Those statements that repn:sent no problem are to be left blank. The class was composed of 71 males and 68 females, the vast majority of whom were juniors and seniors. A variety of curricula were represented among the enrollees. About three-fourths of the en-rollees came from either the Division of Home Economics or the Division of Agriculture. The inventory was filled out during one of the regular class sessions. RESULTS . The major results are shown in the three tables which follow. Table 1 indicates the prevalence of problems by area, the greatest number of problems being in finances-living condition and social-recreational. Least frequently marked were problems concerning home and family. There were four times as many problems in the Rank 1 area as in the Rank 10 area, as indicated by percentage fig-ures in Column 2. Columns 3 and 4 show the rank order by area of major and minor problems. The only change from the rank order of total problems in Column 1 is some minor shifting in the first five problem areas. The greatest difference in rank order appeared in problems concerning adjustment to college work. These problems ranked first as major problems but only fifth as minor problems. The last column shows something of the degree of troublesomeness of problems in various areas. For example, although adjustment to college work ranked third in total number of problems, proportion-ately more of the problems in this area were serious ones as compared with those problems judged to be minor ones. 2Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 65 [1958], No. 1, Art. 61https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol65/iss1/611958J PROBLEMS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS 407 Table I Prevalence of Problems by Area (N= 139) Ratio oi Total Major Prob- Minor Prob- Minor to Problems lems-Rank lems-Rank Major _P_r_o_b_le_m_A_re_a ___ Rank Qrder _'2'<> . ___ O_rdl!r Order Problems Finances-Living Condition Social and Recreational Adjustment to College Work Personal-Social Relationships Curriculum and Faculty Health Morals and Religion Vocational and Educ. Adjustment Relationships with Opposite Sex Home and Family 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 16 15 12 12 11 9 8 7 6 4 3 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5 4 3 6 7 8 9 10 5.1to1 4.4 to 1 2.4 to 1 3.7 to 1 4.1to1 4.0 to 1 3.6 to 1 3.6 to 1 4.2 to 1 6.6 to 1 How prevalent was identification of the same problems? Table 2 shows the number of problems identified by one-fourth or more of each sex. Major and minor problems were combined for purposes of this analysis. The area of finances-living conditions includes the largest number of frequently identified problems. However, of the six problems for males and seven for females, only three were com-mon to both sexes. As noted by the totals in the table, females identified half again as many high-agreement problems (marked by one-fourth or more) as did the males. In this analysis of most prevalent problems, there was no problem that was common to five of the areas for one-fourth or more of the students. Table 2 Number of Problems Identified by One-fourth or More of Students (Male= 71; Females= 68) Problem Area Identified by Males Finances-Living Conditions Social and Recreational Home and Family Relationships with Opp. Sex Health Morals and Religion Personal-Social Relationships Adjustment to College Work Vocational and Educ. Adjustment Curriculum and Faculty TOTALS 6 5 0 0 0 0 2 6 1 3 23 Number of Problems Identified Common to by Females Both Sexes 7 3 6 3 1 0 1 0 4 0 1 0 6 2 3 2 0 0 5 3 34 13 3Bath: The Self-Identified Problems of College StudentsPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1958408 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE [Vol. 65 Listed below are the 13 problems common to both sexes (See Table 2) which a minimum of one-fourth of each sex identified. 1 Tiring of same meals all the time 2. Needing a job during vacations 3. Not enough money for clothes 4. Not enough time for recreation 5. In too few student activities 6. Too little chance to read what I like 7. Taking things too seriously 8. Lacking self confidence 9. Unable to concentrate well 10. Slow reading speed 11. Too many poor teachers 12. Classes too large 13. Too much work required in some courses Sex differences in problems are shown in Table 3. Problem areas are listed in the order which they held in the inventory booklet. Two of the ten areas failed to show a significant difference according to chi square test, those being home and j amily and vocational and edu-cational adjustment. One of the areas shows a difference significant at the .01 level, while four are significant at the .001 level. Females had significantly more problems than males in the six areas of social and recreational, relationships with opposite sex, health, morals and religion, personal-social relations, and curriculum and faculty. Males had significantly more problems in the two areas of finances-living conditions and adjustment to college work. Table 3 Sex Differences in Problems No. of Problems Identified Problem Area By Males By Females Total Chi2 Finances--Living Condition 346 277 623 5.827* Social and Recreational 290 329 619 5.203* Home and Family 72 93 165 3.808 Relationships with Opp. Sex 99 164 263 20.281*** Health 156 212 368 12.191 *** Morals and Religion 118 173 291 13.879*** Personal-Social Relationships 205 258 463 9.645** Adjustment to College Work 275 221 496 4.291 * Vocational and Educ. Adjustment 161 134 295 1.554 Curriculum and Faculty 198 264 462 14.056*** ------·---~------------TOTALS 1920 2125 4045 *Significant at .05 level **Significant at .01 level •**Significant at .001 level 4Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 65 [1958], No. 1, Art. 61https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol65/iss1/611958) PROBLEMS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS 409 DISCUSSION Since the sample of Iowa State College students included in this study was not randomly drawn, generalization to the college popula-tion is not justified. From the sample used in this study, with the assessment instrument employed, the following observations are offered. College female students have more problems than do the males. This is in keeping with the findings of Stone ( 4) and of Hunter and Morgan ( 3) mentioned earlier. The mean number of problems per student was 29. This is IO per cent of all problems listed in the inventory and is suggestive of need for personal and group counseling. Although the subjects of this study were juniors and seniors, the most serious of their problems had to do with adjustment to college work. Again, this finding is in agreement with Stone ( 4) who found that problems concerned with adjustment to college work ranked first in number and seriousness among all problems. At a time when many accusations are being directed toward the home for its shortcomings with youth, there is some comfort in the finding that the smallest number of problems for each sex was in the area of home and family. At any rate, these students indicate pro-portionately few such problems. Stone ( 4) found the same problems were least prevalent. Hunter and Morgan (3), who analyzed sex differences by item, found a significant difference on two-thirds of the items. In this study, the two sexes differed significantly in eight of the ten problem areas, suggesting need for some differential treatment of problems for the two sexes. That is, group counseling would impose some limitations if used with heterosexual groups. Some of the areas of prevalent problems are perhaps a result of the occupational hazards of a college student. For example, complaints about food, living quarters, finances, insufficient time for recreation, courses, and faculty are likely pretty common to a college population in almost any setting. Nevertheless, their problems deserve consider-ation with every effort made to alleviate them. It would appear from results of this study, as well as of others, that insufficient attention is being given to student orientation by college authorities. In view of the great burden to be assumed by a counseling center of a large college in attempting to make its serv-ices readily available to as many students as apparently could profit therefrom, some alternative seems appropriate. Since many of the problems identified are of a type that might be handled satisfactorily in class groups, a course in Adjust!"!lent to College would seem to be 5Bath: The Self-Identified Problems of College StudentsPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1958410 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE lVol. 65 in order. Short of this possibility might be the alternative of devot-ing more time in the first course in psychology to the problems that are known to bother large numbers of students, assuming all or nearly all students would take the course early in their college career. SUMMARY The Personal Inventory was administered to 139 students, prin-cipally juniors and seniors, at the Iowa State College. In order of prevalence from most to least, for both sexes combined, were prob-lems involving: 1) finances-living condition, 2) social and recreation-al, 3) adjustment to college work. 4) personal-social relationships, 5) curriculum and faculty, 6) health, 7) morals and religion, 8) voca-tional and educational adjustment, 9) relationships with opposite sex, and 10) home and family. Although a wide variety of problems was identified, 23 problems were checked by one-fourth or more of the males and 34 problems were checked by the same proportion of females. In general, female students identified more problems than did the males. Where there were significant sex differences in number of problems, females ex-ceeded males in six out of eight areas. On the average, the students checked four times as many major problems as minor problems. The rank order of major problems did not differ substantially from rank order of minor problems in any given area. The greatest shift in rank was four positions. Literature Cited 1. Carr, James Francis, Jr. The Problem Areas of a Selected Group of Students at Florida State University as Indicated by the Mooney Problem Check List. Dissertation Abstr., 1955, 15, 1524-1525. 2. Holmes, J. L. Personal Inventory (College Form), Ames, Iowa: Testing Bureau, Iowa State College, 1949. 3. Hunter, Ruth A. and Morgan, D. H. Problems of College Students. J. educ. Psycho!., 1949, 40, 79-92. 4. Stone, L. G. Student Problems in a Teachers College. J. educ. Psycho!., 1948, 39, 404-416. 5. Tate, Mildred T. and Musick, Virginia A. Adjustment Problems of College Students. Soc. Forces., 1954, 33, 182-185. DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY IowA STATE COLLEGE AMES, IowA 6Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 65 [1958], No. 1, Art. 61https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol65/iss1/61

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