Friendship and Mental Health: A Qualitative Study among College Students

Description

Page: 353-359

Priyosmita Singha and Chinnadurai Periyasamy (Department of Social Work, School of Liberal Studies, CMR University, Bengaluru, Karnataka)

Friendships and mental health are carefully intertwined. From a young age, many of us begin to understand the value of friendship. The aim of the study is to investigate and explore the important impact on mental health among friends. A qualitative research design was adopted, and purposive sampling techniques were used to collect the sample. A total of ten participants participated, and the sample size was finalized based on data saturation. The participants were graduate students currently enrolled in programs at private universities in Bengaluru. An in-depth interview guide and a socio-demographic profile were used to collect the data. A total of seventeen participants participated in the thematic analysis to analyse the data. More than half (64.7%) of the participants are female, and (35.3%) of the participants are male gender. More than half (52.9 %) of participants are from urban domiciles, and (76.5%) of the participants are from above the poverty line (APL). The mean age of the participants was 23.1 + 1.21 years. The study found that a total of six main themes and thirty-two subthemes were generated: The Positive Impact of Friendship, Negative Impact of Friendship, Positive Mental Health, Reasons for Breaking a Relationship, Reasons for Continuing a Relationship, and Stress Busters. This study underscores the multifaceted impact of friendships on mental health, offering a nuanced understanding of their positive and negative effects. Future research could explore the long-term impact of friendships on mental health across diverse populations.