Identity characteristics and mental health conditions of legal education students: Exploring literature for Philippine context

• Main Author: Macaraan, Maryrose C.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2020
• Subjects: Law students—Mental health—Philippines; Law students—Philippines—Psychology; Counseling Psychology; Law; School Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/13194
• Institution: De La Salle University

The legal education system is a highly competitive training ground for all future lawyers. With this, law students are trained to think and act like lawyers. Personality characteristics and the prevalence of mental health conditions in the legal education system is a largely unexplored area particularly in the Philippine context. In this regard, a survey of literature is conducted to look into the emerging identities and prevalence of mental health conditions among law students. Local and international studies will be explored. In these studies, it showed that law students commonly exhibit obsessive characteristics particularly in the area of routine, order and control which in turn makes them prone to being too cautious and doubtful of themselves. Pessimistic attitude is a double-edged sword for law students. On one hand, this helps them manage cases with accuracy and precision. On the other hand, this makes them perceive things in a bad light as their usual way of life. Aside from certain characteristics, the state of mental health among law students is often an overlooked topic. Depression, anxiety states and distress are more common among law students as compared to students in other graduate and professional degree programs. Recommendations for future research and program development will be presented.