Mental Health Related Problems in the Shadow of Anxiety, Stress, Depression and Smartphone Addiction: A Study on Undergraduate Students

Subir Sen¹ and Birbal Saha^1,

¹Associate Professor, Department of Education, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia, West Bengal, India

Cite this paper:
Subir Sen and Birbal Saha. Mental Health Related Problems in the Shadow of Anxiety, Stress, Depression and Smartphone Addiction: A Study on Undergraduate Students. American Journal of Educational Research. 2026; 14(2):74-80. doi: 10.12691/education-14-2-2

Abstract

The study examined mental health, anxiety, stress, depression, and Smartphone addiction among 2004 undergraduate students in West Bengal using a descriptive survey and stratified random sampling. Key objectives were to assess variable levels and compare their dynamical nature across dichotomous groups (gender, residence, and study stream). Levels of all variables were assessed. Mahalanobis Distance was calculated to compare the dynamical nature between groups, revealing a distance less than 1 for all comparisons (male/female, rural/urban, science/social science, science/language, and social science/language). Specific findings indicated that Smartphone addiction was gender and stream dependent, depression was residence dependent, and anxiety was stream dependent. However, the overall dynamical nature showed no significant difference, leading to the conclusion that the combined health condition of the undergraduate students was independent of gender, residence, and study stream.

Keywords:
Mental Health Anxiety Stress Depression Mahalanobis Distance

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