A Study of Positive Mental Health on Bengali Speaking Students of Higher Education in India and Bangladesh

Positive Mental Health (PMH) is a measure of an individual’s present mental state. A study on PMH is done on higher education students of India and Bangladesh with verification of validity and reliability of the scale used to measure the PMH. Present study is done to verify validity and reliability of the PMH scale with respect to the respondents of India and Bangladesh. Further it is used to compare the PMH between men and women for India, Bangladesh and both the countries. The descriptive survey method is followed for the present study. Sample size for the present study is 617 and data is collected by simple random sampling technique from India and Bangladesh. PMH scale by is administered for the present study. Descriptive (Mean, SD, SE and Coefficient of Correlation) and inferential statistics (Cronbach’s α, McDoland’s ω, Guttman’s λ2, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Structure Equation Modelling (SEM)) are used by applying SPSS-26, JASP-0.18.1. PMH scale is valid and reliable for Bengali speaking higher education students of both the countries and it is reflected by the measures of correlation, validity, reliability, PCA, CFA and SEM. PMH differed significantly across female responders from India and Bangladesh. Differences in demographics, attitudes toward learning, and gender-related societal policies may explain the mental health similarities and disparities observed between respondents from India and Bangladesh. Further elements could play a role in the mental health challenges experienced by female students in Bangladesh, indicating the need for a comprehensive, multivariate analysis.