INFLUENCE OF FAMILY ENVIRONMENT ON MENTAL HEALTH OF POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

The family environment plays a crucial role in shaping the psychological well-being and mental health of college students, especially among post graduate students. . Positive family dynamics, such as cohesion, open communication, and emotional support, can contribute to better mental health outcomes, while negative dynamics, such as conflict, neglect, and lack of support, can lead to psychological disturbances such as anxiety, depression, and stress. Understanding and addressing these factors it is found essential to study the influence of family environment on the mental health status of postgraduate students. With this objective a study has been conducted on the postgraduate students studying in colleges and universities of Hyderabad city with the help of research tools namely, Family Environment scale and Mental Health inventory. In addition, the demographic questionnaire was developed to gather the data of post graduate students. The data was collected from the selected 60 respondents who are studying post-graduation in Arts, Science, Commerce and Management courses. The data was analysed with suitable statistics and the results of the study revealed that there is a positive association found between good family environment and low scores on stress, anxiety and depression of postgraduate students. Therefore, it could the concluded that enhancing positive family relationships may improve student mental health. Dysfunctional families relate to poorer adjustment. Hence, fostering healthy family environments could have enduring benefits for postgraduate students' psychological well-being, which reflects on their mental health.