IMPACT OF POSITIVE THINKING IN STRESS MANAGEMENT FOR MENTAL HEALTH OF TEACHER BS EDUCATION STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF GUJRAT

Abstract

Students studying teacher education at BS Education programs at Pakistani state universities must experience a unique set of academic, professional, and personal stressors, which in combination endanger their mental health and future performance as future educators. Combinations of both the pedagogical content knowledge and at the same time acquiring professional teaching skills under conditions of great classroom size, high-stakes test, practicum anxiety, financial constrainedness and family demands all amounts to chronic exposure to stress, which the literature on mental health issues is consistent in implicating as exposure to burnout, anxiety disorders, depression and cognitive impairment. Positive thinking - defined as a cognitive-affective bias, that comprises positive appraisal to stressful events, positive self-statements, positive future perspectives and the ability to reframe adversity as an opportunity - has been theorised and empirically researched as a buffer of the impact of stress on psychological wellbeing. Although there is a positive evidence internationally, the correlation between positive thinking, stress management, and mental health of BS Education students in Pakistan has not been empirically investigated. The article comprises a quantitative, descriptive-correlational study analyzing the effects of positive thinking on the management of stress, mental well-being of BS Education students at the University of Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan. Three instruments are used to survey a stratified random sample of 150 students (n = 75 male, n = 75 female) based on the sample of the first four years of study, that is, Year 1-4, to use: the Positive Thinking Scale (PTS), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS). Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression analysis, and independent samples t-test can be considered as statistical analysis, and they were performed in the IBM SPSS Version 28.0. Results indicate that positive thinking has a significant negative relationship with perceived stress (r = -0.61, p < .001) and a significant positive relationship with mental wellbeing (r = +0.67, p <.001). The proportion of positive thinking in explaining variation in stress management capacity and mental wellbeing scores is 44 and 52 percent. The paper ends with evidence-based suggestions that could be given in form of research findings to university counsellors, faculty and the BS Education curriculum committee to help incorporating the positive thinking skills in the pre-service teacher education model at the University of Gujrat