Adjustment Disorder and its relationship Defensive pessimism among university student

Abstract

The results of previous studies on serious outbreaks, according to the size of the announced statistics, indicate a high prevalence of diseases and mental disorders in adolescents, for example anxiety disorders, which are by far the most common mental disorders and are published by (25%), followed by major depressive disorders by (17) %) post-traumatic stress disorder (1-14%), but this percentage increases in societies that are exposed to great risks, as the percentage may reach (3-58%), and studies indicate the prevalence of adjustment disorder by (5-21). Therefore, the current research tries to find out the extent of its spread in general in Iraqi society, especially after the end of the conditions of sanitary isolation due to the Corona pandemic, as well as its relationship to defensive pessimism among university students. For the purpose of achieving the objectives of the research, the researchers built a scale for adjustment disorder based on the diagnostic criteria of the Fifth International Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which consists of (22) items. The researchers adopted a scale (Abdul 2021) for defensive pessimism, which consists of (51) items, and after making sure that the psychometric properties of the research tools were achieved, it was applied to a random sample of (400) male and female students from the University of Babylon for both sexes for the academic year (2021-2022). Using the appropriate statistical methods, the following results emerged:1- University students suffer from adjustment disorder with a rate of (14.25).2-There are no statistically significant differences in the adjustment disorder among university students according to the variables of gender and specialization.3-The university students have defensive pessimism with statistical significance.4-There are no statistically significant differences for defensive pessimism among university students according to the variables of gender and specialization.5-There is a correlation between adjustment disorder and defensive pessimism. In light of the results, the researchers developed a number of recommendations and suggestions.