Page: 329-332
Shagun Malhotra (Diplomacy, Law and Business, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana)

“Terrorism is intermittently contended to be the result of poverty and impoverished levels of economic development in the nations”. Examining the distribution of terrorist attacks and casualties due to terrorism across the states of India, the research paper states that the terrorism does not solely arise due to low or poor economic development but instead it is infuriated by the unsettled and inadequately managed political clashes/combats. Impoverished states in India are not inevitably much more inclined over terrorism, but states which have distinguished as well as insufficient focus upon the political disputes surely undergoes huge amount of terrorist activities. This study analyses the five reasons for inducement of the political clashes that eventually lead to terrorism in India which are: Ethnic clashes, Communal clashes, existence of scheduled caste and tribes, immense population growth and the concept of the stateless areas.

Page: 338-346
Ram Aravind1, Vaishali Kolhe2, and Dhananjay Kumar3 (Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), New Delhi1, Centre for Disability Studies and Action, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra2, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi3)

The Persons with Disabilities (PwD) emerged as the most vulnerable sections of population, during the COVID-19 crisis in India. The response of the state towards ameliorating the disparaging effects of the pandemic on PwD was perceived to be inadequate considering that the needs of individuals living with disability vary greatly depending on type and degree of disability. In India, rehabilitation institutions working with PwD had long departed from exclusive reliance on state-sponsored welfare funding to securing funds through external sources like philanthropy. However, the self- professed sustainability of private funding was affected by the pandemic, and the period following the lockdown saw rampant cuts in allocation of finances meant for social welfare on account of poor business outlook and diversion of funds towards COVID-19 relief. The actions have affected PwD living in institutionalized settings, which have depended on external sources for funding. In the first-quarter of financial year 2020- 21, the institutions had reported to facing considerable restraint in arranging funds to meet everyday expenses and healthcare needs of the 'cared', while retrenching care-givers and support staff due to inability to pay wages, leading to a situation of mismanagement in care-giving. Through this paper, the authors argue for allocation of sustainable and long-term investments in ensuring welfare of PwD through adopting an inclusive and responsible approach to social spending, as opposed to sporadic and inconsistent funding patterns that only serve to address short-term concerns of disability institutions.

Page: 349-359
Kumar Deepak and Narayanan Annalakshmi (Department of Psychology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu)

Single women face many challenges in the patriarchal society, making the role of social support very critical for their positive adaptation. Social support is a protective factor promoting the well-being of an individual and is received through various levels, types, and from various sources. The present study examines whether the levels, types, and sources of social support predict psychological distress, happiness, life satisfaction, and psychological resilience among single women. A sample of 300 single women (divorced, widows, & separated women) in the age group of 25 to 60 years (M = 39. 82 years, SD = 7. 83) were administered self-report measures of levels of social support, types of social support, sources of social support, psychological distress, subjective happiness, life satisfaction, and psychological resilience. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were carried out to analyze the data. The levels of social support were positively correlated with subjective happiness and life satisfaction, but negatively correlated with psychological resilience. Types of social support did not significantly predict any of the outcome variables. Family support negatively predicted psychological distress, and positively predicted subjective happiness and life satisfaction. Friends support negatively predicted psychological distress and positively predicted subjective happiness and life satisfaction. Significant others' support positively predicted psychological resilience. These findings highlight the roles of various levels of social support, types of social support, and sources of social support as resources that promote the positive adaptation of single women to the challenges of everyday life. The implications of the findings for policy, practice, and research are also discussed.

Pages: 136-141
Joy O. Thuruthel and Joy R. Tungol (The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines)

Burnout garnered significant global attention and World Health Organization has recently included it in the 11th edition of ICD. Burnout adversely influenced students' overall functioning and performance. The purpose of this pilot study was to test the feasibility of an intervention program to reduce the symptoms of burnout and improve the well-being of college students. Conklin's program development model was utilized as a method in the development and testing of intervention. Study Burnout Inventory (SBI) and Ryff's Scale of Psychological Well-being (RSPW) were employed as the research instruments. Interviews and focus group discussions were carried out to acquire an in-depth understanding of the issues of students. Mindfulness-based cognitive theory and positive psychotherapy were integrated into the intervention development. The intervention program was evaluated by interdisciplinary experts before the pilot study. The seven modular Mindfulness-based Self-processing Intervention (MSI) program administered in five weeks on a three hours session per module showed a statistically significant difference between the pre and post-test scores of the participants. The pilot study using MSI resulted in reducing burnout leading to enhancement of psychological wellbeing. The study confirmed that the concepts and the structure of the modules of Intervention are reliable and viable for testing on a larger group of students with symptoms of burnout.

Pages: 146-151
Arun Kumar Jaiswal and Anju Singh (Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh)

The present study reports the percentile norms for the Sleep Quality Scale to differentiate between good sleep from various degrees of severity of sleep disturbances and its effects on depressive symptoms and worry. The sample consisted of 20 to 67 years old 200 participants from Varanasi city of Uttar Pradesh and they were individually administered Sleep Quality Scale, BDI-II and Pennsylvania Sate Worry Questionnaire. On the basis of 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles, the participants were categorized into four groups of (i) Good sleep, (ii) Mild sleep disturbance, (iii) Moderate sleep disturbance, and (iv) Severe sleep disturbance. The mean sleep quality values of the four groups showed sleep disturbance in an increasing order. No significant gender and age differences appeared in sleep quality of four groups. The participants with various degrees of poor sleep quality displayed significantly increasing levels of depressive symptoms and worry in comparison to participants with good sleep. The significant interaction effects of 'groups of sleep quality X gender' on depressive symptoms revealed that severe sleep disturbance had significantly more effects on depressive symptoms in women than in men.

Pages: 159-163
Shazia Hasnain1 and Santoshi Halder2 (Department of Education, Aliah University, Kolkata, West Bengal1 and Department of Education, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal2)

Learners' perception about the task-based approach is an important area of study as students are major stakeholders in new approaches of teaching, and therefore, their opinion and perceptions can help in a better understanding of an approach. Usually, in many developing countries, including India, teacher-centred approaches are followed in teaching English as a second language, leading to ineffective development of learners' communicative skills. The task-based approach has been used in many countries around the world effectively to develop the communicative skills of the second and foreign language learners. The studies have reported the effectiveness of task-based approach and have even discussed the approach from the point of view of teachers. Some studies have particularly collected feedback from the learners to know about their experience in the task-based approach. The present review is an analysis of eleven studies based on the perceptions of students towards task-based approach. This analysis adds to the existing literature by pointing out the positive and negative aspects of TBLT from learners' point of view.

Pages: 173-178
Sakshi Vaish and Irfan Fayaz (Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences (JIBS) O P Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana)

Child sexual abuse (CSA) remains one of the most pressing and far-reaching issues in India today. The trauma resulted from the sexual abuse can contribute to numerous adverse effects on children throughout their whole lifespan. In most cases, the child sexual abuse is not reported and the child is not provided with adequate therapeutic and protective assistance. And as a result, the child has to suffer alone in silence. The main aim of this paper is to discuss and evaluate the nature and all the significant aspects of child sexual abuse in the perspective of Rational Choice Theory. It aims to explore how familial and socio-cultural risk factors are associated with child sexual abuse. The paper will also discuss the ascending growth in the number of child sexual abuse in India during the Covid-19 and provide an overview of the studies done on child sexual abuse during the pandemic. Data for this paper were collected from the incidents of child sexual abuse reported in the newspapers, therefore all the data are secondary. The approach of the research is pragmatic and descriptive method to evaluate the information is chosen. The findings or the results display that there has been a huge spike in the number of child sexual abuse during Covid-19 in India; unemployment remains one of the main reasons for the abuse; in most cases, the offender is well-known to the victim, and there is a huge lack of information about the laws of the country regarding child sexual abuse. Thus, it is quite understandable from this study that Covid-19 and the lockdown have deeply influenced and fueled the already existed issue of Child Sexual Abuse in India.

Pages: 183-185
Neethu P. S.1 and Amala Sudarsan2 (Department of Sports Psychology, Central University of Rajasthan1 and Department of Applied Psychology, Central University of Tamil Nadu2)

A larger number of researchers have identified the various mental health issues due to the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic. The present study is focusing on the positive psychological resource hope and its relationship with wellbeing among adults. A total of 210 participants from the general public were participated in the study completing an online survey. Result showed that hope and subjective wellbeing had a significant positive correlation and also hope is significantly predicting the wellbeing of the adults during the pandemic outbreak. Further the result indicates that the pathway thinking dimension of hope significantly predicting the wellbeing. The result suggests that paying attention to enhance the hope as well as planning to meet goals improves the overall well-being during any pandemic or crisis situations.

Pages: 192-196
Sherin Joseph and Rosalito De Guzman (The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines)

Today adolescent depression is a huge public health concern around the world. Among adolescents, depression is a highly prevalent and severe mental health issue that often leads to suicide, school dropout, antisocial behavior, drug abuse, cognitive vulnerability, and severe disability, resulting in their low psychological well-being. Perceiving this scenario, the researcher aimed to develop an intervention to reduce the level of depression and increase the PWB of adolescents, and to pilot test its viability and usability in the clinical practice. The study made use of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDl-11) and Ryff's Psychological Well-being scales (RPWB) in measuring the research variables. For a better understanding of the situation, the researcher conducted a need-assessment survey, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. Based on these assessment procedures, the researcher developed an eight-modular intervention program. The pilot was tested among ten adolescents who were in a moderate level of depression and poor PWB. The pilot study's findings revealed a significant reduction in depression and a significant improvement in the participant’s PWB.

Pages: 199-204
Tarika Sandhu and Jasvir Kaur (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

The World Health Organization proclaimed the COVID-19 upsurge as a worldwide pandemic on 30th of January, 2020. The virus has impacted major aspects of human existence from physical to mental health across the globe. Chiefly, the COVID-19 epidemic has prompted depressive symptoms, social isolation, and a decreased sense of well-being contributing to increased psychological distress for people at large (Holman et al., 2020; Armitage & Nellums, 2020; Brooks et al., 2020). It becomes vital to consider the role of pre-existing factors such as personal dispositions in determining the mental health outcomes of individuals especially during the pandemic. Research has equivocally demonstrated that, Neuroticism as a stable personality disposition has been significantly related to mental health outcomes in the past (Michielsen et al., 2014; Garbarino et al., 2014; Wenzel, 2015; Gale et al., 2016; Nikcevic et al., 2021). Since Neuroticism is associated with increased sensitivity to stressful, unpleasant or traumatic situations (Hisler et al., 2020) its dominance would affect how people perceive and adapt to the COVID-19 epidemic as well. In the same light, the current study investigated the predictive role of Neuroticism in mental health of adults during COVID-19 epidemic. For this purpose, data was collected online through Google forms from adults, age ranging 20-35 years. The time of data collection ranged from 3rd week of April, 2020 to 2nd week of May, 2020. The status of COVID pandemic in India during this time was almost 1 lakh cases (95,698). General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) by Goldberg (1978) was used to assess the mental health of the participants. GHQ assesses mental health on four domains: Anxiety and Insomnia, Severe depression, Social dysfunction and, Somatic symptoms. Also, Neuroticism was assessed with the Big five personality inventory-44 (John & Srivastava, 1999) which is gleaned from the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) by Costa and McCrae (1985). The total sample comprised of 68 adults (29 Males & 39 Females). Results clearly showed the predictive role of Neuroticism in poor mental health associated with COVID-19 pandemic.

Pages: 208-211
Swathi, P.S. and Mahesh Babu (Department of PG Studies and Research in Psychology, SDM PG Centre, Ujire, Karnataka)

Today's youth is tomorrow's future. Any unhealthy attitude that the youth holds will be passed on to the next generation. Gender stereotype is a widely held belief or generalization about the behaviors, characteristics and roles performed by women and men. The current study focuses on Gender stereotype among young adults. The scales used to assess the variables are Gender stereotype scale by Arjun Sekhar and socio-demographic details on 139 young adults which consist of 80 females and 59 males within the age group of 18 to 35. The data was analyzed using independent samples t-test. The findings of the study indicate that there is significant difference in Gender stereotype among male and female young adults.

Pages: 216-221
Bhupendra Singh (Department of Psychology, NREC College, Khurja, Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh)

Though learning has no age, adolescent years are the most crucial years when one devotes his maximum time to attain knowledge. The best knowledge is the one that an authority provides, school being the one for adolescents. It helps an individual build his/ her personality and future, but what is required is a balanced approach towards inner and outer environment and having a sense of well-being that culminates into good mental health for better development. Knowledge and mental health time and again proved to have a positive correlation. Hence, deducting that schools also help in mental well- being of an individual, won't be wrong. The current study focuses on how the mental health of adolescent boys and girls vary in minority and public schools. It was found that the mental health of adolescents studying in public schools was better on all dimensions but one, which is IQ. A significant dimension to have differed gender wise was emotional stability, where public school boys and minority school girls had an upper hand. The results proved significance of school climate on these adolescents. A total no. of 400 adolescents were studied on a mental health battery in line with the objectives of the study.