Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 332-334
Swati Sharma and Sushma Suri (Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)

The book is a meticulous collection divided into three segments. Aruna's story is brought before all of us by a journalist Pinki Virani. She introduces the book to the mass by saying that “I report on events in order to fulfill people's right to know.” Readers mailed letters to the KEM hospital showing enormous concern to the extent that true account of rape and its aftermath has been lifted and printed in several languages, namely Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu. Brain dead for sight, speech and movement yet hopelessly had been alive for years to pain, hunger and terror for over 24 years, her rapist walked a free man after a mere 7 years in prison for robbery and attempt to murder. This is a story which gives a true account of rape and its aftermath. It is a comprehensive biography of trauma stricken nurse Aruna Shanbaug described in three segments i.e. Into the Twilight Zone, Out of Konkan Land and Towards an Elusive Mukti.

Pages: 342-347
Nimesh Mohan George and Neelkanth B. Bankar (Department of Psychology & Counselling Center, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, Maharashtra)

Adolescence is among the most critical developmental stages one goes through in one's life cycle, being the stage where ones identity is formed on the threshold of increased responsibilities and absolute autonomy of adulthood. And therefore adolescents in this phase are vulnerable to significant distress and impaired adaptability. Family relations and attachment dynamics immensely contribute to increased functioning and well-being. The present study intended to delineate the specific familial and attachment process which are related to functioning among specific age category of late adolescents. It also intended to major familial and attachment which determine functioning. Late adolescents between the age of 16 and 19 years constituted the sample. Colorado self-report measure of family functioning was used to assess family functioning, attachment scale questionnaire was used to assess attachment dimensions and general health questionnaire was used to assess functioning among adolescents. The results revealed that there was a significant relation between all dimensions of family functioning and attachment scale to functioning of adolescents. Expressiveness and confidence predicted increased functioning while external locus of control, enmeshment, active recreational orientation, preoccupation and need for approval predicted reduced functioning. The results reaffirm that familial and attachment factors significantly contribute to functioning and well-being among adolescents.

Pages: 355-362
Deepti B. Duggi, Iranna S. Amashi, and Shanmukh V. Kamble (PG Department of Psychology, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka)

The present study is conducted to find out the significance of the relationship of coping of men and women living with HIV/AIDS with their personal and general belief in just world. A purposive sample of 100 male and 100 female people living with HIV/AIDS are selected for the study. The sample was selected for the study from Positive People Network, NGOs and ART centers. The sample was collected from Hubli-Dharwad Corporation and Gadag. Personal Belief in Just World Scale developed by Claudia Dalbert (1999); The General Belief in Just World Scale developed by Dalbert and Schmitt (1987); and Ways of Coping developed by Susan Folkman and Richard Lazarus in (1985) scales were used to test the hypotheses. Results of the present study revealed that, all dimensions of coping- Confrontive Coping, Distancing, Self Controlling, Social Support, Accepting Responsibility, Escape Avoidance, Planful Problem Solving, Positive Reappraisal are positively and significantly related to General belief and Personal belief of just world of men living with HIV/AIDS. Accept Accepting Responsibility, all other dimensions of coping are positively and significantly related to General belief and Personal belief of just world women living with HIV/AIDS.

Pages: 368-372
Sudarshini S. (Department of Clinical Psychology, Institute of Mental Health Sweekaar Academy of Rehabilitation Sciences, Secunderabad, Telangana)
Barre Vijay Prasad (Department of Clinical Psychology, Dharwad Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Dharwad, Karnataka)

“Addiction is a family disease….One person may use, but the whole family suffers.” Women may face unique issues when it comes to substance use, partly because of gender differences based on biology and culturally defined roles for men and women. Scientists research on substance use discovered special issues related to hormones, menstrual cycle, fertility, pregnancy, breast feeding, and menopause that can impact women's struggles with drugs, including controlling weight, fighting exhaustion, coping with pain, and self-treating mental health problems The number of women suffering from alcohol or drug addiction during pregnancy is increasing. The main aim of this article to highlights the addiction during pregnancy, addressing the evaluations measures by using standard tools. It was also emphasized on need of the risk assessment of addiction during pregnancy in India.

Pages: 380-383
Rupan Dhillon (Department of Psychology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab)
Nitesh Kumar Jha (Criminal Psychologist, Expressions Children, Homes Organizations of India (ECHOI), New Delhi)

Crime and criminal behavior in society is not a simple phenomenon to understand. Crime is considered as an intentional act that violates the law of a particular society. When we talk about the differences in the way criminals interpret their social environment, we see that their social cognitions are different. Offenders draw conclusions on the basis of their personal social cognitions. Studies also indicate that the social moral values and the levels of empathy are different of criminals and the general population. Hence, this increases the offending rates in criminals. This study is taken up to understand the importance of two social cognitive variables of empathy and sociomoral reasoning and to find out whether the offenders differ from non-offenders on these two variables. A sample of 60 offenders and 60 non offenders will be taken. The psychological measures to be utilized in this study are Sociomoral Reflection Measure (Gibbs et al.,1992) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980). Statistical analysis will be applied to study differences on these two variables. Results will be elucidated on the basis of current scenario prevailing in the society and implications will be discussed.

Pages: 392-396
Meera Padhy (Centre for Health Psychology, University of Hyderabad Hyderabad, Telangana)
R. Lalnuntluangi and Kavya Chelli (Centre for Health Psychology, University of Hyderabad Hyderabad, Telangana )
Meena Hariharan (Centre for Health Psychology, University of Hyderabad Hyderabad, Telangana)
C. Raghavendra Rao (School of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana )

Diabetes is one of the highly prevalent non communicable diseases (NCD) that has invaded both developed and developing countries. The WHO projections for the world as well as specific countries are highly alarming. Interventions consequent upon these projections must target children who constitute vulnerable population for the projected year. The first stepping stone towards such intervention is to measure the existing knowledge about the disease in children. The present study combined the qualitative and quantitative methods in exploring children's concept of diabetes. A sample of 548 children from three schools studying in class VI through X were administered an open ended question to get data on children's understanding of the concept of diabetes. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The content analyses identified five broad themes, viz., the definition, causes, symptoms, consequences and management of diabetes. Responses indicating misconceptions were grouped separately. A new method of measuring the complexity of the concept was used. The response divergence indicating explanation of the disease across the themes was measured by computing 'Entropy values' using a formula. The response divergence or conceptual complexity was measured for each class. Results indicated a sudden spurt in conceptual complexity in class X. Results also indicated a dismally low level of knowledge about diabetes and large number of misconceptions. Low levels of knowledge and huge misconceptions warrant public health measures through awareness programmes in campaign mode.

Pages: 401-403
Rashmi Upreti and Seema Sharma (Department of Human Development & Family Studies, PAU, Ludhiana, Punjab)

The present study assessed and compared the social maturity of adolescents in orphanages, single parent families and intact families. The sample consisted of 300 adolescents in the age group of 14-16 years, from the four selected cities of Punjab (Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, & Hoshiarpur). From the selected orphanages, 100 school going adolescents were drawn and also, 100 adolescents were selected under both single parent families and intact families from the government schools. Respondents were equally distributed across both the genders (Boys 50, Girls=50, in each category). Self designed general information questionnaire along with the Social Maturity Scale was administered to collect the data. The results of the present study revealed that most of adolescents irrespective of their family type showed medium level of personal, interpersonal and social adequacy. Interestingly, total social maturity of most of the adolescents also found to be medium and almost negligible difference was found in their proportions across family type. Also, the adolescents from orphanages were found socially less mature as compared to those residing with intact families and with single parent families. Parents or caretakers can boost social maturity of the children by testing their capacity for observation and social learning, by make them learn how to become more socially mature, and by strengthening their poor peer relationships.

Pages: 407-412 Neetima Batra, Veena Sangwan, and Manju Mehta (Department of Family Resource Management, CCSHAU, Hisar, Haryana) House construction is a life dream for an individual especially the homemaker. The study was planned to know about the view of homemakers towards kitchen and pooja room principles of Vaastu Shastra. By applying various principles how much they satisfied was be the main trust area for such kind of study.200 homemakers who have constructed and Renovated their house according to Vaastu shastra were selected purposively to find out the knowledge and application of various vastu principles. after that 100 homemakers were selected randomly to find out the level of satisfaction among various principles. Kitchen and pooja room principles were selected purposively keeping in view the major concern of Indian women. More than 50 percent of the respondents had made their kitchen in SE direction of house, same number of them have placed pitchers and utensils for drinking water in NE and N side. Vastu says fridge should not be in NE direction of kitchen was not aware by 65 percent of the respondents still 34.o0 percent had applied this concept at kitchen. A major number of respondents had applied the concept that pooja room in building should be in E, N, NE corner of house (85.0%). some concept of pooja room such as one should not sit exactly having the idol (90.0%), white colour or yellow colour marble work should be done in pooja room (65.0%) were applied by respondents band lamp stand in SE corner of worship room (54.0%) were applied by respondents but they are not aware about these. While finding the satisfaction level, by applying principle such as kitchen in SE more than three fourth respondents were highly satisfied in psychological and functional utility aspect. placement of pitcher in NE and N side seems to be a tedious task for some respondents hence a little percentage of respondents (11.6%) were found dissatisfied also. Same with some aspects of pooja room principle where placement of lamp on particular direction become tedious for one fifth of the respondents (17.24%)otherwise overall concepts of pooja room provide them highly satisfaction, Hence we can say that pooja room and Kitchen satisfaction is of major concern of today's homemaker.

Pages: 417-418
Sangeeta and R.B. Grewal (Department of Centre of Food Science and Technology, CCSHAU, Hisar, Haryana)

Amaranth, a major pseudo-cereal is rich source of carbohydrate, protein, lipids, dietary fiber and functional components. Starch is its major component and used in many food products to improve their functional and technological properties. In the present investigation starch from amaranth was evaluated for morphological and functional properties. Average size for starch granules was ranged from 0.99-1.70μm and indicated very small size of starch granules as compared to other cereal grains. Amaranth starch showed 118.90% water absorption capacity, 0.76 solubility index and 13.07g/g swelling power. High water absorption capacity, solubility index and high swelling power of amaranth starch presented its suitability for wide application in many end use food products.