Levels of general psychological health of young people in Algerian society -By psychological distress as an indicator of psychological health

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the levels of general h psychological health of a sample of
Algerian young people as an indication to understand their current situation and to identify the extent
of cohesion and adaptation of the Algerian society and its youth, with the fast continuous social and
cultural change that is characteristic of contemporary societies in light of the globalization and its
various manifestations.
The study included a sample of 962 young men and women from different faculties of the
universities of Batna, Biskra, Alger, in addition to some youth from vocational training centers,
Whose ages between 15-30 year(22.25-+-2.4,females=72,65%). And we used Kissler Psychological
Distress scale(K10),After translating and codifying it on the Algerian society, which consists of 10
phrases aimed at revealing the extent psychological Distress and suffering among individuals as an
indicator of their affliction or risk of developing a mental health disorder.
The results showed that this measurement has good psychometric properties. It revealed
that more than 23% of the study sample suffers from high degrees of psychological distress(more
than 30 degrees) as an indicator of imbalance in psychological health with a high risk of developing

anxiety and depression, which is a very dangerous degree, calls for attention of specialists to take
care of them. Whereas the results showed that there were differences in psychological distress
according the the sex variables( in favor of females, T=-5.29 is a statistically significant at the level
of 0.01) and the educational level(in favor of non-university students, T=-2.17 is statistically
significant at the level of 0.01),While the results of the study of differences in degrees psychological
distress in terms of age variables(T=1.47) and residence location(T=-0.136) is not significant and it’s
means there are no differences in psychological distress in terms of these two variables.
These results indicate that the study sample individuals suffer from difficulties and high
degrees of anxiety and depression disorder, It is a very small percentage of the global percentage,
Which makes us confirm the need to pay attention to this category (young people) and to identify the
psychological and social causes and cultural changes associated with the high degree of
psychological distress in order to care for them.