Table 1.
Sample characteristics (n = 17,838).
| Socio-demographic characteristics of the sample | ||
| Gender | Male | 27,5% |
| Female | 71,8% | |
| Gender non-conforming | 0,7% | |
| Population group | Black-African | 82,5% |
| Coloured | 5,3% | |
| Asian or Indian | 3,0% | |
| white | 7,7% | |
| Other (including prefer not to say) | 1,5% | |
| Student status | Undergraduate students | 84,2% |
| Postgraduate students | 15,8% | |
| Mental health status and history of receiving treatment for a mental health problem | ||
| Self-reported current mental health status | Excellent | 31,6% |
| Good | 36,1% | |
| Fair | 24,3% | |
| Poor | 8,0% | |
| Among students with poor mental health, how difficult is it to do work, take care of things at home, or get along with other people. | Not difficult at all | 1,2% |
| Somewhat difficult | 26,0% | |
| Very difficult | 42,1% | |
| Extremely difficult | 30,7% | |
| Proportion of students who report ever receiving psychological counselling for an emotional/psychological or substance use problem. | 18,8% | |
| Proportion of students who report ever receiving medication for an emotional/psychological or substance use problem. | 11,2% | |
| Proportion of students who report receiving any treatment (counselling or medication) in the last 12 months | 8,7% | |
| Access to technology and confidence using technology | ||
| Own a smart phone | 97,6% | |
| Confidence to use computers, smartphones and the internet | Not confident | 1,3% |
| Somewhat confident | 6,2% | |
| Fairly confident | 31,1% | |
| Very confident | 61,4% | |
| Internet access | Mobile data (using my cell phone) | 75,7% |
| Wi-Fi Fibre connection at home | 33,1% | |
| Wi-Fi hotspots in public places | 19,9% | |
| On campus | 16,7% | |
| Other form of access | 2,1% | |
| No internet access | ||
| Average amount of money spend on data each month | Have unlimited (uncapped) free data paid for by my parents | 9,9% |
| Spend more than ZAR500/USD20 a month on data | 15,4% | |
| Spend between ZAR200/USD10 and ZAR500/USD20 on data | 30,0% | |
| Spend ZAR100/USD5 to ZAR199/USD10 a month on data | 26,6% | |
| Spend less than ZAR100/USD5 on data | 18,1% | |
| Social media use | ||
| Social media use (frequency of use on average) | I don't ever access social media | 1,6% |
| A few times a week | 10,8% | |
| About once a day | 7,6% | |
| Two or three times a day | 26,1% | |
| More than three times a day | 53,9% | |