Is happiness in University student possible? A non-parametric study

Abstract

The question, Is happiness possible in university students? guides the present quantitative research aimed at 237 students (men and women) of the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast. This Research is based on a descriptive design, applying the Alarcon’s scale of happiness (2006) taking into account the variables of gender, age, ethnicity and years of study. For this, different types of analysis were performed, among them: internal consistency of the questionnaire, the analysis of main components, and a study of correlations between the categories applying the Kolmogorov normality tests, the Mann-Whitney U test, test from Wilcoxon, Kruskal Wallis, and the Friedman test, using the SPSS statistical package. The results show that happiness in university students is possible taking into account that it is merely subjective in people and, around it, different elements are included that make it possible. In this sense, it is concluded that the variables ethnicity, age, gender and years of study do not have a direct relationship with the state of happiness of the students, since they are not determinants to define this state in the human being.