Mental Health Issues as a Correlate to University Students' Academic Achievement in Chemistry

The study investigated on mental health issues as a correlate to university students' academic achievement in Chemistry. The study was carried out among Chemistry undergraduate students in the Department of Science Education and Pure and Industrial Chemistry Department all in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka. The design was correlational research type. The target populations for the study were year one Chemistry students. The sample for the study was three hundred (300) year one undergraduate students (male: 150 and female: 150) drawn through simple random sampling techniques. Two purpose of study, two research questions and two hypotheses were raised to guide the study. Two instruments were used to elicit the relevant data. One was namedZara Folarin Mental Health Questionnaire (ZFMHQ) which was adapted from Gokhan (2020) Student Mental Health and Academic Achievement Revisited. The instrument was validated by three expects and a reliability of .81 was obtained after pilot study indicating that the instrument was reliable. The second instrument is a standard instrument named Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) adopted from CHM 101 past questions.The data collected were analysed using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation for both research questions and hypotheses which was tested at .05 level of significance. The results revealed that: alow positive relationship between university undergraduate students' mental health issues and their academic achievement in Chemistry. Hence, there was significant relationship between university undergraduate students' mental health issues and their academic achievement in Chemistry. The findings also revealed a low positive relationship between university undergraduate male and female students' mental health issues and their academic achievement in Chemistry moderated by gender. Hence, there was significant relationship between university undergraduate students' mental health issues and their academic achievement in Chemistry when moderated by gender in favour of female ...