Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 1341-1343
Rita Rani Talukdar and Kakali Goswami (Department of Psychology, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Kamrup, Assam)

The present study was carried out to explore Psychological well being and family environment and role of it as the predictor of psychological well-being among the post graduate students in Assam. Psychological well being is important for better performance in student's life. Also their family environment plays significant role in their mental health. For a student, psychological well being level and family environment is correlated for positive life ahead. The sample of the study consists of 50 students pursuing post- graduation from Gauhati University. The Psychological well being scale developed by Carol Ryff (1995) and Family Environment Scale developed by Bhatia and Chadha (1996) , standardized psychological tests were used to measure the psychological constructs in the study.. The mean value showed high level of well being among the students. The results showed that family environment is an important significant predictor of psychological well being. It indicated that family environment and psychological well being share important relationship in students' life.

Pages: 1355-1356
Pravakar Duari (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)

The world of yesterday is not the world today. Twenty years ago businesses, organizations, and university systems employees expected continuity, stability, and longevity in their jobs. Today, that is not the case. Change occurs daily in our work and community. We are required to adjust, learn, and move forward as individuals and organizations. Or, we move out of the organization. Organizations are looking within themselves for the initiative to move with the technology of the 21st century. Thriving is a positive organizational behaviour concept. It includes the joint experience of vitality and learning at work. Vitality denotes the sense that one is energized and feels alive at work. Learning is growing through new knowledge and skills. Thriving lens sheds light on how individuals play a role in creating the contextual conditions for their own growth, thus making the thriving process a joint product of the context and an individual acting to architect their own work context. Thriving is defined as the psychological state in which individuals experience both sense of vitality and learning. Spreitzer et al. (2005) suggested that thriving matters because it enhances the health and personal development of employees. Thriving individual learn to navigate protean careers (Hall, 1998) and to sustain their performance, health, and well-being over time (Pfeiffer, 2010).

Pages: 1360-1365
Aneesh Kumar, Anjali Gireesan and Sibnath Deb (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)

Although most of the children experience abuse and neglect at home, educational institutions is also a place where they are subjected to caning, slapping, and whipping that result in bruises, cuts, and humiliation and in some cases serious injury or death. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), ratified by nearly every country in the world, obliges governments to protect children from all forms of physical or mental violence. Yet, millions of children continue to suffer violence and abuse. For given the same background, the necessity was felt to carry out an in-depth qualitative study to understand the perception of students in Pondicherry about abuse including verbal, physical and sexual abuse, and neglect, and their awareness and need for child rights. The objective of the present study was to understand students' perception of abuse and neglect. For achieving this objective, four Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), two with boys and two with girls were carried out among school going students aged between 14 -16 years. From the discussion it emerged that corporal punishment still existed in majority of the homes and it is associated with unpleasant emotions. Students shared their expectations from teachers and parents. Both boys and girls were of the view that boys get physically punished and girls are verbally abused. On the context of physical/ sexual abuse, it was found that girls were more aware of the issue. The understanding of abuse and neglect among students and defining these concepts was also done in the discussions. Findings of the present study suggests the need for creating awareness among parents and teachers about negative effects of corporal punishment and abuse, and also sensitizing students about abuse and being on a safer side. The need for psychologist/ counsellors at school for addressing emotional issues was also understood from the discussions.

Pages: 1371-1373
Sikandra (Department of Foods and Nutrition, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar)
Ruby Siwach Sangwan (Research Scholar, NDRI, Karnal, Haryana)
Kavita (Department of HDFS, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar)

The present investigation was conducted on school going children (9-15 years) from Gurgaon city, Haryana state India. A total of 200 obese and 50 healthy children (as non-obese) were selected randomly. A well-structured questionnaire was developed and used to gather information on food habits, physical activity and dietary pattern of the children. The study revealed that more than 80% of the obese children were taking either mid-morning, tea time or bed time snacks. Intake of fried food and weekly frequency of food consumption outside home was higher (59%) in obese children as compared to control group children. Playing of games was the main activity of non-obese group children (36%).Majority of obese children (78%) were not doing any physical activity and only 7% obese children were doing cycling and 13% were doing walking. Majority of non-obese group children spent less than 2hrs for TV and internet whereas 81% of obese children spent more than 2hrs for TV and internet. It was noticed that more than fifty percent of obese children spent less than 6hrs for sleeping.

Pages: 1374-1380
Nabamita Chakraborty and Sanjukta Das (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Calcutta)

Middle adulthood entails the height of social power and having access to a rich supply of social support (Dorner et al., 2005).Although the social networks are shrinking throughout adulthood, social satisfaction is steadily on the rise (e.g., Lansford, Sherman & Antonucci,1998). Naturally, self-esteem is quite at its peak around the age of 60 years (Robins, Trzesniewski, Tracy, Gosling, & Potter, 2002), the source of personal control and power is at its peak (Clarke-Plaskie & Lachman, 1999), and subjective well-being tends to be at least higher than in young adulthood (e.g., Cross & Markus, 1991;Heckhausen, 1999) without feeling overly grandiose or afraid (Dorner et al., 2005). Unlike many younger adults, most of them have made their peace with societal expectations and have found decent arrangements to meet both personal goals and environmental demands. Yet, in comparison to older adults, middle adults tend to be more egocentric and also more vital and vigorous in pursuing their concerns (Mc Adams, 2001; Stewart & Vandewater, 1998).

Pages: 1400-1403
G.B Manjula (PG Department of Psychology, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnatak)
Rajeshwari. N. Kenchappanavar (Karnatak Arts College, Dharwad, Karnatak)

The present study investigates the Aggression, depression level and the extent of loneliness of Commercial female sex workers and gays. A sample of 100 female sex workers and 100 gays from Belgaum region of Karnataka state were chosen for the study. The Aggression scale developed by Mathur and Bhatnagar, Depression scale developed by Beck and perceived Loneliness scale developed by Praveen Kumar Jha were administered on the sample to collect the data. The results were analyzed using t-test. The findings reveal that Commercial female sex workers and Gays differ significantly on Aggression, depression and loneliness. Further, it was found that rural and urban Commercial female sex workers differ significantly on aggression, depression and loneliness. Similarly rural and urban gays differ significant on all the three variables.

Pages: 1411-1414
Mojtaba Aghili (Department of Psychology, Payame-Noor University, Iran)
Rostam Aliniya (Psychologist, M.A., Babol Rehabilitation Center )

The prime objective of the current research is to study the relationship between Internet addiction and psychological health of students. Selected by multi-step random sampling, samples of this research which is described as a correlative study, consist of 206 students (89 boys, 117 girls) studying at one of the universities in Babol. All subjects filled in questionnaires designed for Internet Addiction Test(Young, 1998), Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) (Lavybvnd & Lavybvnd, 1995).Independent Samples T-test and Pearson Correlation Coefficient were used for data analysis. Results of the research showed that Internet addiction has negative correlation with positive aspects of psychological health (self-esteem and satisfaction with life), and positive correlation with negative aspects of psychological health (depression, anxiety and stress). In other words, increase in the level of Internet addiction makes a reduction in positive aspects of psychological health (self esteem and satisfaction with life) and gives rise to negative ones (depression, anxiety and stress). In addition, Independent Samples T-test revealed that there is no significant difference between the two sexes in terms of the level of their addiction to the Internet. At the end, implications of the current findings were discussed.

Pages: 1418-1423
Pankaj Singh (Bhartiya Shiksha Parishad, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh)

The influences of school success on diverse areas of development and the empirically suggested connections among adolescent Self-concept, School Satisfaction and educational problem the relationships among these constructs were investigated. A sample of 500 eighth, ninth and tenth graders, who are at risk for academic difficulties, participated in the study. Independent adolescent self-concept, school satisfaction and educational problem. Results suggest that Adolescents girls are more satisfaction than Adolescents boys, and Adolescents girls are less educational problem as compare to adolescents boys.

Pages: 1427-1429
Chandra Shekhar and Palak Malhotra (Department of Psychology, University of Jammu, Jammu)

Self-esteem is one of the strongest research topics in psychology. Research has documented the important role high self-esteem plays in academic achievement, social and personal responsibility. Self-esteem is the one key ingredient that affects the level of proficiency in all fields of endeavor. Self-esteem has been correlated to job success, school achievement, general happiness. The relationships between self-esteem and academic achievement motivation have received much attention. Gender is generally asserted to impact upon the growth, demonstration and manifestation of self-esteem. This study examined self esteem, gender and academic achievement motivation. 40 boys and 40 girls within the age of 18 to 21 yrs from 2 Govt. colleges of Jammu were selected as a sample. Data was collected by administering Rosenberg self esteem scale by Rosenberg while Academic Achievement Motivation test (AAMT) by Dr. T.R Sharma was used to measure academic motivation of college students. Random sampling technique was used in the present study. The data obtained was analysed statistically and the study revealed that there is a significant difference in the self esteem and academic achievement motivation of boys and girls.

Pages: 1434-1437
Naorem Binita Devi (Department of Psychology, Mizoram University, Aizawl)

This paper is about the study of personality traits, anxiety, depression, aggression, stress, dominance, warmth of Meitei community in Manipur. The main objective of this study is “to find out the correlation of personality traits i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness of Meitei community; to find the correlation of personality and measures of the personality assessment inventory, i.e., Anxiety, depression, aggression, stress, dominance and warmth; to find out the correlation of anxiety, depression, aggression, stress, dominance and warmth of the Meitei community; to find out the factor structure of all the variables, neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, anxiety, depression, aggression, stress, dominance, warmth of Meitei community. Trying to fullfill these objectives, the investigator randomly selected 140 participants from the normal population in Meitei community ranging age level of 20-60 yrs. Results are evaluated by mean, median, and factor analysis to find out the factor structure for the participants. For 140 subjects the correlation coefficients of .15 and .20 are significant at .05 and .01 levels of significance respectively. From the result, In general, the intercorrelations among five measures of personality are low ranging between -0.6 to.60. out of 10 intercorrelation, 9 correlations are significant at or beyond .05 level. In general the correlations between five measures of personality and 6 measures of personality assessment inventory i.e., anxiety, depression, aggression, stress, dominance,and warmth are low ranging from -.37 to .39. Out of the 30 correlations, only 19 correlations are significant at or above .05 level of significance. In general, the intercorrelations among 6 measures of anxiety, depression, aggression, stress, dominance and warmth variables are low ranging between -.22 to .68. out of 15 intercorrelations, 8 correlations are significant at or above .05 level. In this study, the investigator found 4 factors; namely general factor of personality (factor-I); neurotic factor (factor-II); well-organized factor ( factor-III); and autonomous factor (Factor-IV).

Pages: 1441-1444
Anju Manocha (Associate Professor, GCG-14, Panchkula, Haryana)
Ruby Siwach Sangwan (Research Scholar, NDRI, Karnal, Haryana)

Adolescent girls, constituting nearly one tenth of Indian population, form a crucial segment of the society. Their nutritional status will decide the well being of the present as well as future generation. The study assessed the diet quality and nutritional status of 240 rural girls between 12-18 years of age from rural areas of Panchkula and Karnal district of Haryana State. Dietary intake data were collected by three days recall method. As a result of questionnaires and interviews, food intakes for three consecutive days were collected. Intakes of cereals, pulses, roots and tubers, and sugar and jaggery as reported by respondents were significantly lower than the prescribed Indian recommended dietary intakes (RDI). The consumption of milk and milk products and fats and oils was adequate whereas green leafy vegetables and fruits were the most limited food items. The respondents followed a two meal pattern and their diets were monotonous and cereal based. The mean daily intake of milk and milk products, pulses, green leafy vegetables, other vegetables and fruits was grossly inadequate meeting only 46%, 37%, 28%, 36% and 5% of the suggested allowances. The intake of fats and oil seeds and roots and tubers was somewhat adequate meeting 63% and 75% of the allowances while the intake of cereals and sugar was almost adequate revealing a deficit of less than 10%. The study further revealed not only a high incidence of under nutrition but also an inadequate energy or micronutrient intake. Therefore, sustained efforts are needed to educate rural masses regarding their increased nutritional requirements during adolescence and the need of hour is to plan and implement innovative developmental programmes to address the nutrition and health needs of rural adolescent girls in a comprehensive manner.

Pages: 1448-1451
Gurminder Sokhey and Ravijot Kaur (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala)

The present investigation attempted to assess the role of adherence in Quality of life (QOL) amongst coronary heart disease (CHD) patients. The sample comprised 300 subjects: 150 patients (both males & females suffering from CHD, i.e., MI or Angina), and 150 normal healthy controls (both males & females) in the age range of 30 to 55 years and from middle & upper middle class families. The subjects were administered the Medical Outcome Study (MOS) Measure of Patient Adherence (Hays, 1993) and The RAND Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire: SF-36 (Ware,1993) to assess general and specific adherence to medical regimen of patients and their Quality of life (i.e., Physical and Mental health-related QOL) respectively. Correlational Analysis of the data revealed positive correlation of general adherence & specific adherence recommendations with both physical & mental health-related QOL for CHD patients. Whereas for normal controls, specific adherence recommendations (e.g,. regular exercise, cut down stress, etc.) were negatively correlated with both physical & mental health-related QOL. Further, specific adherence behaviours were positively correlated with only mental health-related QOL of CHD patients whereas for normal controls these were positively correlated with only physical health-related QOL.