Mental Health and Positive Psychological Functioning of Pakistani Ph.D. Scholars

Mental Health and Positive Psychological Functioning of Pakistani Ph.D. Scholars | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Mental Health and Positive Psychological Functioning of Pakistani Ph.D. Scholars Farhana Ambreen, Ambreen Fatima, Saima Khan, Abdikafi Abdullahi, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7177291/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Doctoral programs demand rigorous intellectual commitment and an unrelenting pursuit of knowledge, often at the cost of scholars’ mental health. Mental health and Positive Psychological Functioning (PPF) are crucial components of the overall well-being of individuals. Pakistani Ph.D. scholars, like any other students, face a range of challenges and stressors during their academic journey. The present study evaluated the current mental health and PPF of Pakistani scholars by utilizing a cross-sectional research design. In order to carry out this investigation, 240 participants (male = 111 & female = 129) were selected using a snowball sampling technique. To assess the mental health and PPF of study participants, DASS-21 and the Positive Psychological Functioning Scale (PPFS) were used to collect data. Results of two-way ANOVA illustrated that there is a significant main effect of PPFS and DASS-21 across gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and employment status. Further results of two-way and three-way mixed factorial ANCOVA revealed significant main effect of PPFS with (F(2,147) = [29.137], p < .001) , and DASS-21 (Depression (F(2,147) = [17.736], p < .001) , Anxiety (F(2,147) = [7.578], p = .001) , and stress (F(2,147) = [10.066], p < .001) across Social sciences, Computer science and Engineering majors. The study concludes that mental health and PPF are important areas to consider when supporting the well-being of Pakistani PhD students. Mental health Positive Psychological Functioning Ph.D. Scholars DASS-21 Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7177291","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":549947601,"identity":"a82a32be-7cfd-4206-8210-b925f48c2525","order_by":0,"name":"Farhana Ambreen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Bahria University Islamabad Campus","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Farhana","middleName":"","lastName":"Ambreen","suffix":""},{"id":549947602,"identity":"2c0bb696-c072-4b7b-b0cd-6b3c89478a7e","order_by":1,"name":"Ambreen Fatima","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National University of Science and 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Scholars","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Mental health, Positive Psychological Functioning, Ph.D. Scholars, DASS-21","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7177291/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7177291/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eDoctoral programs demand rigorous intellectual commitment and an unrelenting pursuit of knowledge, often at the cost of scholars\u0026rsquo; mental health. Mental health and Positive Psychological Functioning (PPF) are crucial components of the overall well-being of individuals. Pakistani Ph.D. scholars, like any other students, face a range of challenges and stressors during their academic journey. The present study evaluated the current mental health and PPF of Pakistani scholars by utilizing a cross-sectional research design. In order to carry out this investigation, 240 participants (male\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;111 \u0026amp; female\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;129) were selected using a snowball sampling technique. To assess the mental health and PPF of study participants, DASS-21 and the Positive Psychological Functioning Scale (PPFS) were used to collect data. Results of two-way ANOVA illustrated that there is a significant \u003cem\u003emain effect\u003c/em\u003e of PPFS and DASS-21 across gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and employment status. Further results of two-way and three-way mixed factorial ANCOVA revealed significant \u003cem\u003emain effect\u003c/em\u003e of PPFS with \u003cem\u003e(F(2,147) = [29.137], p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001)\u003c/em\u003e, and DASS-21 (Depression \u003cem\u003e(F(2,147) = [17.736], p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001)\u003c/em\u003e, Anxiety \u003cem\u003e(F(2,147) = [7.578], p\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;.001)\u003c/em\u003e, and stress \u003cem\u003e(F(2,147) = [10.066], p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001)\u003c/em\u003e across Social sciences, Computer science and Engineering majors. The study concludes that mental health and PPF are important areas to consider when supporting the well-being of Pakistani PhD students.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Mental Health and Positive Psychological Functioning of Pakistani Ph.D. Scholars","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-25 16:57:08","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7177291/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"ca261dea-1805-4c7d-9512-253cd1e35ad0","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 25th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-16T05:54:34+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-25 16:57:08","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7177291","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7177291","identity":"rs-7177291","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}