Abstract
What is the effect of university students' mental hygiene upon their mental conditions after graduation? To evaluate the relationship between university students' mental hygiene and their mental prognosis, we conducted a clinical research concerning social support. Method : The subjects included 24 university graduates who were under treatment at our clinic for more than six months. Healthy 24 university graduates were selected as controls. Both the subjects and the healthy controls filled out a questionnaire on their social support networks. We also presented a case study by which we could evaluate the relationaship between the effect of our treatment and patients' social support network. Result : Factor analysis of the questionnaire shows that family is the most important social supporter for either patients or healthy controls at any time. Also, patients consider that they had less social supporters during their university life than healthy controls. Another result is that such support as listening and empathy by surrounding people was meaningful to both patients and healthy controls. Furthermore, our case study shows that as our treatment progressed, the patient developed more social support networks. Conclusions : First : family is the most important social support network. Second : patients consider that they had less social support networks during their university life than healthy controls. Third : a supportive or empathetic attitude is the most impressive social support behavior. Fourth : from the case study we learned that as the patient's communication with was getting her doctor improved, her social skill also improved, which resulted in the expansion of her social support network. Through this study we learned that, the patients were lacking in social support networks, but after our treatment promoted their communication skill, they expanded their social support networks.
