Abstract
Background: Happiness is considered as an important part of people's lives, and it has become part of Saudi Arabia's 2030 vision.
Objective: Measure the levels and identify the demographic, family status, and academic factors associated with happiness among students in Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU).
Methods: A cross-sectional study with 771 participants selected from health, humanities, and science colleges by quota-sampling techniques. The data were collected by an online questionnaire consisting of four sections including the Oxford happiness questionnaire. Inferential analysis was done using Chi-square, ANOVA test, and logistic regression.
Results: The average mean of happiness between the three colleges were found to be 3.97 using the Oxford questionnaire. In the demographic factors, only household income and mother employment were found to be significantly associated with students' happiness. Regarding family status, only family type and the number of family members were found to be statistically significant. However, in the academic factors, all variables were found to be significant, except the field of study and academic level. Multivariable analysis found that household income, mother employment, family number, satisfaction with specialty, environment and classmates can successfully predict the level of happiness.
Conclusion: The mean level of happiness among all colleges is nearly similar, but slightly higher among health colleges. The most associated domain with happiness was found to be academic. Six variables were found to be predictive of students' happiness. This study recommends conducting regular screening to identify any variations of students' happiness levels.