Effectiveness of a programme in promoting positive behaviours and reducing negative emotions among undergraduate students

Abstract

Many studies have reported high rates of mental health problems among undergraduate students aged 18–24 years all over the world. The current study aimed at determining the level of negative emotions among students and evaluating the effect of a positive reinforcement programme on reducing negative emotions among undergraduate female students. The results demonstrated that the most prevalent negative emotions that had the highest scores among students were anxiety and stress (mean = 42.53), excessive nervousness (mean = 42.93) and anger (mean = 38.06), with a total mean score of 123.53. There were also statistically significant differences between the scores of the experimental group members, in favour of the post-measurement. The study concluded that anxiety and stress, excessive nervousness and anger were the most negative emotions among the study sample, and the applied programme proved its efficacy in reducing negative emotions among students.

Keywords: Positive behaviours, negative emotions, undergraduate students, psychological effects, promoting behaviours.