INTRODUCTION:

Adolescence is a crucial period for developing social and emotional habits important for mental well -being. These include adopting healthy sleep pattern, exercising regularly, developing, coping, problem-solving and interpersonal skills and learning to manage emotions. The need of adolescents is really different from earlier stages of life cycle,¹Adolescents, are young people between the ages of 10 and 19 years, are often thought of as a healthy group². About 30% of India's population is in the adolescent age group of 10-19 years. Adolescents are full of energy, have significant drive and new ideas. They are a positive force for a Nation and are responsible for its future productivity provided they develop in a healthy manner.³If the need of adolescent is not properly gratified the adolescent becomes a problem youth. Adolescents often face a number of crises and dilemmas, lack of adequate care and attention poses the risk of developing various psychological problems.⁴Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and also the capability and freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so (World Health Organization a) Emotional and behavioral problems of adolescents is an umbrella term for describing a wide variety of problems such as to conduct problems, antisocial behavior, anxiety, depression, stress and substance abuse.⁶ Many factors determine psychological problems in adolescents which can be associated with various factors such as socioeconomic living conditions, stigma, discrimination or exclusion or lack of access to quality support and services.⁷Stress is a way of life in the present world. Childhood experiences deeply influence an individual and profoundly affect emotional and physical health later in life. A number of biologic and environmental stressors such as demands of school, physiologic changes, and adversities like family conflicts and responsibilities, and an uncertain future place adolescents at risk for emotional problems.⁸

Most common disorders include depression and anxiety and delinquency, aggression, educational difficulties. Academic stress adversely affects students personal, emotional and physical well-being as well as their learning and performance level. Due to ever expanding population in INDIA, the education system has become highly competitive. In addition to their personal experiences of stress and distress, studies identify many other sources of stress, including academic, parents, teachers, school administrators, and larger societal origins.⁹Although there is a more health awareness and they constitute a large percentage of the population, have a distinct pattern of health and illness, and are one subset of the population that has experienced little or least improvement in overall health status over the past 40 years.

Adolescent is mainly affected by home and school environment¹⁰. School play vital role in the development of an adolescent, as they spend much time attending school, engaging in extracurricular activities and completing scholastic work at home.¹¹ Our mental health impact our physical health and over all well-being someone struggling with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, an eating disorder or addiction can find it difficult to maintain focus, find motivation for task and relate to peers and colleagues. Good mental health is just as important for teachers and students as it is for the rest of the population.¹²Coping is expending conscious effort to solve personal and interpersonal problems, and seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress or conflict. Psychological coping mechanisms are commonly termed coping strategies or coping skills.¹³

In the present scenario, as the society is influenced by modernization and westernization the path from adolescence to adulthood is endowed with stress. This is true, especially in the case of adolescents the form of parental ambitions and highly competitive academic environment. The objective of the current study is to assess the prevalence of stress and stress causing factors among school adolescents.¹⁴

RESEARCH STATEMENT:

A descriptive study to assess the psychological problems and adopted coping strategies among adolescents in a Government Model Senior Secondary Smart School Kharar, Punjab.

OBJECTIVES:

1. To assess the psychological problems among adolescents

2. To assess the adopted coping strategies among adolescents.

3. To find out association between psychological problems and adopted coping strategies among adolescent with their Socio demographic variables.

4. To prepare and disseminate the pamphlets on management of psychosocial problems among adolescents.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS:

ASSESS:

In this study, assess means to find out the psychological problems and adopted coping strategies among adolescents in a Government Model Senior Secondary Smart School kharar, Punjab

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS:

When person’s behaviour is deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional psychiatrists and psychologists label it as disordered given by Comer in 2004.

ADOLESCENT:

Adolescent is a person between the ages of 10 to 19 given by World Health Organization (WHO).

METHODOLOGY:

RESEARCH APPROACH:

A quantitative research approach was adopted for the study.

RESEARCH DESIGN:

Non-experimental Descriptive research design was considered appropriate for the study.

SETTING OF THE STUDY:

Study was conducted in Government Model Senior Secondary Smart School kharar, Punjab.

TARGET POPULATION:

Target Population comprised of adolescents.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE:

Non probability convenient sampling technique was used for the study.

CRITERIA FOR SAMPLE SELECTION:

The inclusion as well as exclusion criteria used for the present study is as follow:

Inclusion criteria:

The study includes:

1. Students who were present at the time of data collection.

2. Patients who are willing to participate in the study

Exclusion criteria:

The study includes:

1. Students who were not present at the time of data collection.

2. Patients who were not willing to participate in the study

DEVELOPMENT OF TOOL

The tool was divided into two parts:

Part 1: Socio -demographic profile

Part 2: Self -structured questionnaires

RESULT:

Section I: Frequency and percentage distribution according to socio demographic variables:

According to age group 81.81% of adolescent were in the age group of 13-15years, 13.63% in 10-12 years, 4.54% in 16-18 years. 60.9% of the adolescents were male and 39.09 were female. Majority (40%) of the adolescents were from 10th class, 32.72% from 8th class and 27.27% from 9th class. Majority (91.18%) of adolescents were living rural area were as 1.81% were living in urban area. Majority (76.36%) of adolescents were Sikh, 20% Hindu, 2.72% other and 0.9% Christian. Maximum (53%) of adolescents were from joint family and 46.36% from nuclear family. The majority (65.4%) of adolescents were in upper lower socioeconomic status, 30% in lower middle socioeconomic status, 2.72% in lower socioeconomic status and 1.81% in upper middle socio-economic status. Hence it was concluded that maximum adolescents were in the age group of 13-15 year and were male. They are studying in 10th class. Majority of them are from rural area, were Sikh, from joint family and belongs to upper lower socioeconomic status.

SECTION- II

Table 1:- Distribution of adolescents as per psychological problems. N=100

Criteria Measure for Psychological Problems
Level of Psychological problems	Score	F(%)
Severe	66-78	0(0.0%)
Moderate	53-65	6(5.5%)
Mild	40-52	96(87.3%)
No	26-39	8(7.3%)

Minimum Score= 26, Mean+SD=44.88+4.79, Maximum Score = 78

Table 2: Distribution of adolescents as per adopted coping strategies

Criteria Measure for Coping Strategies
Levelofcoping strategies	Score	F(%)
Good	20-26	3(2.7%)
Average	27-33	56(50.9%)
Poor	34-40	51(46.4%)

Minimum Score=20, Mean+SD = 33.14+3.04, Maximum Score= 40

SECTION- V:

Table 1: Association between psychological problems with selected socio-demographic variables:

Table illustrate that the association between level of psychological problems and socio demographic variables (age, gender, residence, religion and socio-economic status) were found to be a statistically non-significant except class and type of family which was found statistically significant at p=0.004 and 0.034 respectively. Hence it can be narrated that class and type of family had an impact on psychological problems. This suggests that with the advancement of class and joint family psychological problems had increased significantly.

Table 2: Association between adopted coping strategies with selected socio-demographic variables:

Table illustrate that the association between the adopted coping strategies and sociodemographic variables (age, class, residence, type of family and socio-economic status) were found to be a statistically non-significant except gender and religion which was found to be statistically significant at p=0.00 and 0.026 respectively. Hence it can be narrated that gender and religion had an impact on coping strategies. This suggests that with the advancement of gender and religion had impact on coping strategies.

IMPLICATIONS:

Nursing practice:

Nurses and students working in various wards and in psychiatric OPD and psychiatric ward can assess the level of psychological problems and coping strategies among adolescents with this nurses can help adolescents to follow the adopted coping strategies. This will further reduce the level of psychological problems among adolescents.

· Nurses and students can organize camp in the community on the level of psychological problems and create awareness about coping strategies among adolescents.

Nursing Education:

Nurse educators while teaching about coping strategies must emphasis about the prevalence of psychological disorders. Encourage students to conduct research studies on various problems faced by adolescents.

Nursing Administration:

Nursing administration should ask nurses of psychiatric department and general OPD to celebrate day like World Mental Health Day to create public awareness related to psychological problems and coping strategies to deal with the psychological problems.

· Administration support should be provided to conduct in service education program for the nursing personnel related to coping strategies to deal with the psychological problems.

Nursing Research:

Nurses need to be actively engaged in all phases of research process, to address ongoing nursing practices. The present study information can be used by future researchers. The present study can be the source of review of literature for others who are conducting studies on similar topics.

REFERENCES:

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Received on 06.07.2023 Modified on 14.11.2023

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2024; 12(1):15-18.

DOI: 10.52711/2454-2660.2024.00004