Relación de los factores psicológicos y los estilos de vida con la calidad de vida de los estudiantes universitarios

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine the relationship of psychological factors and lifestyles with the quality of life of university students (adolescents-young people) belonging to three IES of the Chapinero locality within the framework of the life cycle. It is a quantitative correlational cross-sectional study, with a sample of 1135 students aged between 18 and 24 years, corresponding to 660 women and 475 men, of first semester of undergraduate of three Institutions of Higher Education located in the locality of Chapinero, Bogota - Colombia. A standardized questionnaire was applied for each of the variables: Psychological Factors (assertiveness, self-esteem, anxiety, coping and self-efficacy); Lifestyles (nutrition, physical activity, preventive behavior, social relationships and stress control); and Quality of Life (perception). The results show negative indices for psychological factors in 4 of 5 subcategories of analysis, and for lifestyles, 3 of 5 subcategories show negative indicators, which may have implications for human development in later stages. On the other hand, the perception of quality of life shows positive indices at this time of the life cycle, which implies the evaluation by adolescents-young people of the quality of life as satisfactory regardless of their lifestyles and the psychological factors involved in coping with an ecological transition such as the transition from school to university. It is concluded that psychological factors present relevant characteristics at the moment of the adolescence-youth life cycle in the ecological system, where the University as a new microsystem requires new social and cognitive skills, habits, strategies, attitudes and values, so it is required that the IES in the framework of the educational system, make use of the knowledge of investigations such as these, to favor the development of their students. This aspect is connected with lifestyles, which are in the process of configuration, and how the understandings and opportunities that are built in the microsystems, mesosystems and exosystems, can have an effect on the quality of life in later stages of development.