Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 277-281
Suneeta Yadav (Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP)

The present study investigated the work-family conflict and mental health of women in teaching & bank employment belonging to two age groups, viz., early (ErA) and mid adulthood (MdA) were explored. Work-Family Conflict Scale and Mental Health Inventory were administered to 50 (ErA-28 & MdA-22) and 62 bank employees (ErA-30 & MdA-32). Main effect of age was significant for work-to-family conflict, positive self evaluation, perception of reality, integration of personality, autonomy, group oriented attitude and overall mental health scores. Main effect of profession was significant only for positive self evaluation, perception of reality and group oriented attitude. Interaction effect of age and profession was significant only for autonomy. Within the teachers, ErA as compared to MdAscored higher on work-family conflict areas and lower on all the dimensions of mental health but none of the differences were significant except work-to-family conflict. Similar trends were observed within the bank employed women also but differences were significant on all the dimensions of mental health, except environmental mastery. On mental health areas, at ErA phase, teachers as compared to bank employees scored significantly higher on positive self evaluation, perception of reality and overall mental health. On the other hand, women belonging to the two professions were similar to each other on all areas of mental health at MdA. Results have been analyzed in the light of the changes that take place in the lives of the working women as they pass from early to mid adulthood in the two different professions.

Pages: 287-291
D. Dhanalakshmi (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)

College students are at an augmented risk of not only perceived stress but also cognitive distortion and this can have an unbelievable impact on their health. Sense of coherence seems to be one of the most important ways in which health is perceived in recent years. The present study explored the relationship between perceived stress, cognitive distortion, sense of coherence and general health among college students. The sample consisted of 125 undergraduate college students (62 boys and 63 girls) aged between 18 to 20 years. The sample was selected from different colleges in Chennai. All the participants responded to the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen), Sense of Coherence Scale (Antonovsky), Cognitive Distortion Scale (Briere) and General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg). Bivariate statistics showed that general health was positively related to dimensions of cognitive distortion and perceived stress, while it was negatively associated with sense of coherence (SOC). Agender difference was found wherein girls scored significantly higher on the self- blame and helplessness dimensions of cognitive distortion and also in terms of perceived stress and general health. This clearly indicated that girls perceive more stress and experience more health issues when compared to the boys. Regression analysis revealed that perceived stress is an important predictor of general health. The self-criticism and hopelessness subscales of cognitive distortion emerged to be good predictors of general health in conjunction with certain demographic like age, gender and number of siblings. The results of the study highlight the need to provide college students with appropriate support and guidance through the challenging years of college. This need is more pronounced for girls because they seem to be internalizing their responses to stress. Interventions that channelize their strengths to promote more adaptive ways of coping with stress are imperative.

Pages: 296-299
Pankaj Mehta and Bindia Mehta (Department of Education, Govt. of Haryana, Haryana)

The high quality teachers and education in any country of the world have been very essential part of the different civilization of the world in historical perspectives, so the level of satisfaction of teachers towards their job is very important to study. The present study was aimed to find out the relationship between quality of work life and job satisfaction among the govt. secondary school teachers of Haryana. The participant were100 govt. secondary (high) school teachers selected from different govt. schools of Sirsa and Hisar, Haryana. Quality of work life has been examined with help of quality of work life scale by Dhar, Dhar and Roy (2008) and job satisfaction has been measured with the help of job satisfaction scale by Singh and Sharma (1999). The findings from regression analysis show that quality of work life (QWL) is positively correlated with job satisfaction and QWL also is a good predictor of job satisfaction among teachers.

Pages: 305-308
Sudarsan Behera (Department of Applied Psychology Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)
Manaswini Dash (Department of Psychology Utkal University, Bhubaneswar)

Nowadays teaching profession is perceived by the teachers as a very stressful occupation as they have to do a variety of works. The present study has been designed to study stress and spirituality among school teachers in relation to several demographic variables such as gender, age, locality of work and residence, length of work experience, and type of school in which they are working. For this purpose a purposive sample of 240 school teachers with equal number of teachers from three different types of schools, i.e., elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools of Odisha were administered the Indore Teacher Job Stressor Scale (Rathod&Varma, 2005) and the Spirituality transcendence Scale (Reker & Prabhu, 1989). One-way Analyses of Variances revealed significant differences in total amount of stress experienced as well as spirituality as a function of locality and type of school. It is suggested that in the face of stress teachers are using spirituality as a coping mechanism which in turn, reduces their stress- level. The results are discussed in socio-educational context of Odisha.

Pages: 316-319
Garima Choudhary and Jatinder K. Gulati (Department of Human Development, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab)

Adolescence has been labeled as a stage of storm and stress. Life skills are the abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. As today's adolescent girls are tomorrow's women, development of appropriate life skills and capabilities among them has prime importance to ensure them to lead quality life. The present study was undertaken to assess the developmental status in terms of selected life skills such as self confidence, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and stress management of urban adolescent girls living in low socio-economic conditions. The sample was comprised of 150 adolescent girls aged between 15 to 17 years studying in the government senior secondary schools of Ludhiana City and belonging to low socio economic status. The results revealed that girls having graduate parents and non working mothers, more number of siblings and joint families, possessed greater self confidence, better interpersonal skills, while daughters of matriculate mothers perceived greater stress as well as used more stress coping strategies as compared to their counterparts from other categories.

Pages: 325-327
Sunita Tiwari and Pooja Garg (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttrakhand)
Sunita Tiwari and Pooja Garg (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttrakhand)

According to Bowlby, early attachment experiences with parents provide prototypes for later interpersonal relationships outside the family. The basic premise of the study is based on early childhood experiences that people develop general expectations about relationships. Then once formalized into mental structures, these beliefs are resistant to changes and have implications for the nature of one's relationships across the life span. In the present study, the relation between the early attachment experiences with parents and adult interpersonal relationships (love and friendship relationships) were examined. The sample comprises of 100 married college students (50 females and 50 males). Parental Attachment Questionnaire (PAQ) was used to assess the subject's perception about their parents' attitude towards them and their relationship with their father and mother. QRI (Quality of relationship inventory) was used for the assessment of love and for friendship relationships. The results supported the hypothesis that early parent-child attachment experience is significantly related to adult interpersonal relationship.

Pages: 331-333
Saima Hafiz (Department of Psychology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab)

The present study aims to find out the difference in level of adjustment of college students in relation to their gender and area of living. The sample consisted of 60 college students out of which 30 participants were from urban area and 30 from rural area. The data were analyzed by using t-test to obtain mean differences between college students. The result shows that there is significant difference in adjustment of males and females and also in terms of area of living i.e. urban and rural. The surroundings in which adolescents live have an important impact on the personality of an individual. These environments interact with the characteristics of adolescents to procreate contrasting levels of adjustment. Adjustment is an important tool for the survival of each and every organism.

Pages: 338-340
Deepika, Harish and Neha Jain (Department of Psychology, M. D. University, Rohtak, Haryana)

The present study was aimed at studying a comparative study of aggression in State and District level sports persons of Haryana. (Body Builders) was measured with the help of aggression questionnaire by G.C. Pati (1977). Total sample of the study comprised of 100 sports persons (Body Builders) were consisted in which Group I consisted of 50 sports person of District Level. The Group II consisted of 50 sports person of State Level. Obtained data analyzed with the help of t-test. Result showed no significant difference between state and district level sports person (Body Builders) on aggression has been supported. Results have been discussed in the light of previous studies.

Pages: 344-349
Aparna Pathak (Department of Psychology, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, U.P.)

This article attempts to explore whether sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention from strangers in public is a frequent experience for women. The Supreme Court's definition of sexual harassment includes “such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as physical contact and advances; a demand or request for sexual favours; sexually coloured remarks; showing pornography; any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non verbal conduct of sexual nature”. These include comments, jokes, whistling, filmi songs, continuously phoning a person. Gender harassment involves degradation of women at the group level such as making jokes about women as a group or posting pictures of women as sex objects. Unwanted sexual attention involves degradation of women at the individual level, such as treating a woman as a sex object by sending her dirty emails, grabbing her inappropriately, or leering at her. Harassment coping responses fall into four categories: (a) advocacy seeking recruiting formal support from organizational authorities; (b) social coping mobilizing emotional support and advice from trusted others; (c) avoidance/denialavoiding the harassing situation physically (e.g., avoiding the harasser's workstation) or cognitively (e.g., denying the seriousness of the situation); and (d) confrontation/ negotiation directly requesting or insisting that the offensive behavior cease.

Pages: 354-356
Vinod Chayal and Pardeep Khanna (Department of Community Medicine PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana)
Pooja (Medical Officer, Health Department, Haryana)
Anuradha (Medical Officer Indian Army)
Mukesh Nagar (Medical Officer, VMMC & Safadarjang Hospital, New Delhi)
Shweta Goswami (Department of Community, Medicine KPC Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata)

Influenza Subtype A has caused various pandemics; in 1918-19 Spanish flu [A (H1N1)], Asian Flu [A (H2N2)] 1957-59, Hongkong Flu [A (H3N2)] 1968-69 and “Swine Flu” [A (H1N1)] 2009-10. H1N1 flu virus causes respiratory illness in people, affecting the nose, throat and lungs. Influenza can be transmitted through airborne route by droplets from infected human beings or direct contact or contact with fomites. Agent H1N1 influenza derives Segments from four influenza viruses; North American Swine, North American Avian, Human Influenza and Eurasian Swine. Pigs Infected with Influenza virus from different host of human or bird origin may act as “mixing vessel” which may lead to reassortment of influenza genes and can create a new strain of influenza virus. Subtype A of Influenza virus can Undergo mutation that can take place within the genome (Antigenic drift) / or re- assortment among the genetic materials of subtypes (Antigenic Shift) resulting in a new virus. Antigenic analyses of the recent circulating A (H3N2) viruses have shown differences from the A (H3N2) virus used in the influenza vaccines for 20142015. Recently, countries in Northern Africa, Middle East, and India reported an increase in influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 activity. The predominant strain in western countries has been seasonal influenza A (H3N2) where as in India the California strain of 2009 is prevailing. It has been reported that the recent 2014-2015 H1N1A outbreak in India has resulted in >30,000 cases with over 2000 deaths. These recent spurt of cases and deaths which was even higher than the original H1N1 2009 outbreak in India resulted in a widespread debate that this strain H1N1A 2009 has mutated or not. Improved surveillance and monitoring of the influenza outbreak is need of the hour to both treat as well as prevent spread of the virus. Due to better connectivity world over and high infectious nature of influenza, there is an urgent need to develop a comprehensive and a standardized response to influenza epidemic outbreaks. There is a need of genetic and phenotypic analysis of the virus as and when cases are reported world over and general dissemination of the data is needed to ensure access to this data source in case of any outbreak.

Pages: 364-368
R. B. Jain (Department of Community Medicine PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana)
Anand Kumar Sharma (Department of Physiology MMMC&H, Kumarhatti, Solan, H.P.)
Sami Magray (Department of Pharmacology MMMC&H, Kumarhatti, Solan, H.P.)
Sumit Chawla (Department of Community Medicine MMMC&H, Kumarhatti, Solan, H.P.) Bharti (SMO, WHO)
Inderjeet Singh and Vikas Gupta (Department of Community Medicine PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana)

Tobacco use is today's major public health concern in our country, which can be largely reduced by primordial and primary prevention. According to NFHS III, 57% of men and 10.8% of women use any kind of tobacco in India. To determine the prevalence and correlates of tobacco use among the rural community of block Beri, district Jhajjar, Haryana. This cross-sectional study was carried out during the period of September 2012 to August 2013.Multistage random sampling was used in this study. Asample size of 1080 was included in the study Appropriate statistical tests were used for analysis. The overall prevalence of current tobacco use was found to be 26.9% (tobacco-smoking: 26.4%; tobacco-smokeless: 2.7%) and it was found to be higher among males as 46.7% (tobacco-smoking: 46.3%; tobacco-smokeless: 4.4%) than7.2% in females (tobacco-smoking: 6.5%; tobacco-smokeless: 0.9%). Our study confirmed the high burden of tobacco use in rural areas and reiterated the need to address these issues comprehensively as a part of NCD prevention and control strategy.

Pages: 374-378
Naved Iqbal, Mehfooz Ahmad, Riyaz Yaqoob Wani, Sheema Aleem, and Abeer Abdul Majeed (Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a degenerative, progressive and irreversible chronic brain disease. It has an insidious onset; is characterized by gradual loss of cognitive and behavioral functions, and by affection disturbances, compromising the physical, mental and social integrity of the elderly. Present study examined anxiety, depression and psychological well-being among the Caregivers of Alzheimer's disease Patients. Sinha's anxiety scale, Beck depression inventory (BDI) and Ryff's scale of psychological well-being were administered on 20 the subjects in VIMHANS, New Delhi. The data were analyzed by using small sample t- test. Results demonstrated that significant differences were found between male and female caregivers on depression, self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, and environmental mastery dimensions of psychological wellbeing. Female scored higher than male on depression whereas, male scored higher than females on self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, and environmental mastery dimensions of psychological wellbeing. However, significant differences were not found between male and female caregivers on anxiety, purpose in life, and personal growth dimensions of psychological wellbeing.