Analysis of Mental Wellbeing and Sense of Community Belonging among First-Year College Students in Indonesia

This chapter discusses research regarding the mental wellbeing (MWB) of first-year students in Indonesia and its relationship with a sense of community belonging (SCB) as one of the competencies that determines success in university studies. The research was conducted with N = 289 Indonesian students from universities under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) and the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA). The research results show that an SCB at university has a positive and significant relationship with MWB ( r = .26). This chapter also presents interesting data regarding research variables descriptively based on the subject’s demographic data. This chapter provides information that most respondents came from Sumatera Island (55%) and Java Island (43%) with moderate MWB (66.8%); however, 15.2% of respondents had very low MWB, so they were at high risk of experiencing depression. SCB was also moderate (67.5%) and had a significant positive relationship with MWB. In addition, there were significant differences in SCB and MWB based on gender and semester, but other demographic variables, such as institution, place of residence, and first-generation status, did not have a significant effect.