Although the mental health problems of college students have been the subject of increasing research, there are no studies about its prevalence in Ecuadorian college students. The aim of this study was to determine the mental health problems and their associated factors in Ecuadorian freshmen university students. A sample of 1092 students (53.7% women; mean age = 18.3 years) were recruited from the Technical Particular University of Loja (Ecuador). Socio-demographic, academic, and clinical characteristics were gathered, as well as information on the participants’ mental health through a number of mental health screens. Prevalence of positive screens was 6.2% for prevalence of major depressive episodes, 0.02% for generalized anxiety disorders, 2.2% for panic disorders, 32.0% for eating disorders, 13.1% for suicidal risk. Mental health problems were significantly associated with sex, area of study, self-esteem, social support, personality and histories of mental health problems. The findings offer a starting point for identifying useful factors to target prevention and intervention strategies aimed at university students.

Journalist’s mental health could predict their job change. This study aims at determining the prevalence of mental health issues and their association with perception of aptitude for covering emergencies and difficulty in seeing a corpse, and also to determine the mental health factors associated with job change. An ad hoc survey, GHQ-28 (Somatization, Anxiety-Insomnia, Social Dysfunction, Depression), MBI-P (Burnout, Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, personal accomplishment) and Brief scale to diagnose Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Suicide Risk were applied to 196 journalists (female = 51.6%). Descriptive analysis, correlations (Pearson and Spearman), T-test and binary logistic regression were performed. It was found that one third part of journalists perceive themselves as having low aptitude to cover emergencies and difficulty in seeing a corpse, 17.3% would consider changing jobs and 42.1% could only access free mental health services. The most frequent mental health problems are: low personal accomplishment, emotional exhaustion and post-traumatic stress disorder (11.2 to 17.3%). People who want to change jobs present more: social dysfunction, depression, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, low personal accomplishment, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide risk. The two mental health factors associated with desire of changing jobs are high emotional exhaustion, and low personal accomplishment. These results guide the psychosocial risk prevention processes for journalists, as well as the training needs that universities could consider to protect the mental health of this vulnerable group.

Las condiciones laborales en los medios de comunicación latinoamericanos se han visto impactadas por diversas crisis como la pandemia por COVID-19, la violencia político-social y la crisis económica. Se requiere determinar los factores demográficos y psicosociales que inciden en la decisión de dejar de trabajar en los medios. En una muestra de 288 periodistas de Ecuador (34.4%), Perú (28.1%) y Venezuela (37.5%), se aplicaron dos encuestas ad-hoc: una para variables demográficas y otra para factores de riesgo/protección psicosocial. Se realizó análisis bivariados para comparar aquellos que quieren dejar su empleo de aquellos que no, y se encontró que los que quieren dejar sus empleos se caracterizan por ser jóvenes, mujeres, residir en capitales, haber recibido más amenazas de despidos, acoso laboral, sentir que su salud ha empeorado y evaluar negativamente a sus jefes. Los trabajadores que no desean cambiar de empleo experimentan significativamente mayor intimidación y confrontación política. Adicionalmente, mediante la regresión logística binaria se encontró que tener mayor edad, residir en Venezuela y presentar mayor confrontación política son factores protectores. La mala conectividad de internet, percibir mayor impacto en su salud y valorar negativamente la preocupación que perciben por parte de sus jefes inmediatos, son factores de riesgo. Estos resultados se discuten en relación con la importancia de la prevención de riesgos psicosociales para mejorar la retención de los trabajadores en los medios en contextos de crisis multisistémicas.