Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 136-139
Kanu Priya and Gayatri Raina (Department of Psychology, Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla, HP)

The present investigation was conducted to examine the effect of gender, family size and birth order on social adjustment of adolescents. Samples of 150 adolescents (75 males and 75 females) in the age range of 16-18 years, studying in 11th and 12th standard were selected from four English medium schools of Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh. Global Adjustment Scale developed by Psy-Com Services (1994) was used for measuring social adjustment among the selected sample of adolescent boys and girls. A 2*2*2 analysis of variance with unequal replicates was carried out to see the independent and interactive effect of gender, family size and birth order on social adjustment of adolescents. Results revealed that gender has established significant effect on social adjustment of adolescent with boys having significantly better social adjustment as compared to girls. Furthermore, findings also revealed that gender was involved in significant higher order interaction effect with birth order. Results clearly indicated that male later born students had better social adjustment as compared to male first born students. In, addition to this, the findings of present study also suggested that female first born students had better social adjustment as compared to female later born students. But the family size does not seem to play its significant role on social adjustment of adolescents in Himachal Pradesh.

Pages: 172-176
Alok Kumar (Department of Sociology, C.C.S.University, Meerut, U.P.)

This paper assesses the socio-economic profile of the women and explore the women's food habits, values and after effects. In this paper, the researcher investigated the phenomenon by using interview and observation technique at a village of Bulandshahr District, U.P. (India). The results revealed that majority of the women are Hindu who belonged to the early age group (25-45) and OBC castes, educated up to secondary and higher secondary level belonged to lower income group, were housewives, lived in middle size houses and in nuclear families, had light, ventilation, toilet and bathroom facility in their house. Majority of the women eat least and last, keep fast for religious and astrological purpose for the wellbeing of the family members. They rarely give their attention towards nutritional diet due to which they are suffering from the various health problems like malnutrition, stress, sleeplessness and other diseases. Efforts are needed to improve diet quality and education for rural women for their upliftment in the economic and health status.

Pages: 186-192
Ruby John and Sritha Sandon (Department of Psychology, Montfort College, Bangalore, Karnataka )

The current research study focuses on the effect of perceptual load and the nature of distractors between children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and children without Autism Spectrum Disorder. The purpose of the study is to measure the selective attention of children with ASD, further comparing children with ASD and children without ASD. Selective attention is measured on the basis of perceptual load and nature of distractors. The independent variables of the study are perceptual load, which is the number of distractors and also the nature of distractors (similar and dissimilar) and the dependent variable is the reaction time of the children during the task. The study has the following hypotheses: • Perceptual load and nature of distractors will influence selective attention of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. • There will be difference in selective attention as a function of perceptual load and nature of distractors in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder. The study was conducted on 15 children with ASD and 30 children without ASD, between the age group of 5 to 13 years, from the Urban Bangalore Population. The subjects were shown a set of stimulus cards that contained a target stimuli, accompanied with distractors. Depending upon the number of distractors the perceptual load of the card varied and depending on the similarity and dissimilarity of the distractors to the target stimulus, the nature of the distractors varied. The data was collected by noting the children's reaction time in identifying the target stimulus. The data was collected and analysed using 2 two way mixed and within subjects ANOVA. One was used to analyse the effect of perceptual load on selective attention within each group and between two groups. The other was used to analyse the effect of nature of distractor on selective attention within each group and between two groups. The results showed that there exists a significant difference in reaction time between group 1 (children with ASD) and group 2 (children without ASD) with regard to the nature of distractors and perceptual load. Thus accepting the first hypothesis. The ANOVA value for the main within subject's effect shows that the reaction time has differed significantly across the levels with regard to both perceptual load and nature of distractors thus accepting the second hypotheses. The implications of this research can be used to derive suitable intervention tools to enhance a child's perceptual capacity based on perceptual load and nature of distractors. This kind of tools that will enhance the child's attention can be used by teachers and also parents to help their children with disabilities to perform better from what they used to. This tool also acts as a material for play for the children, thus keeping them entertained while helping them with their attention.

Pages: 198-203
Dani Veena and Sana Alvi (Department of Psychology, Sarojini Naidu Government Girls P.G. College, Bhopal, M.P.)

Guided Imagery (GI) is an emerging alternative therapy to control anxiety. The technique involves purposefully and consciously inducing mental images in order to obtain the desired outcomes. The present study investigated the efficacy of GI intervention in the management of state and trait anxiety in an incidental and purposive sample of 8th class students. A pre-test post- test design with one control and one experimental group, matched in terms of intelligence scores and socio-economic status was adopted. After a pre-test assessment of trait and state anxiety levels of both the groups, GI intervention was administered on the experimental group while the control group continued their usual scholastic tasks. The Guided Imagery Intervention developed by the investigator consisted of 7 audio scripts of 15 minutes duration. Interim testing of state and trait anxiety levels was done after the first round and post testing after the second round of Guided Imagery Intervention. A follow up testing was done after a gap of one month. The data was analyzed by applying the 't' test, one way ANOVA, and Duncan's Multiple Range Test. The results proved the effectiveness of GI in lowering the state and trait anxiety.

Pages: 208-211
Mahuya Karmakar (Vice-Principal cum Professor, Woodlands College of Nursing, Kolkata)

The article addresses on the potentials of creative and arts-based approaches in enhancing social networks, support inclusive practice and enable user participation and its impact on quality of life in the context of dementia care The objectives of the discussion is to understand the concept of arts based therapy in the care setting for care of persons with dementia, to examine and analyze critically the studies on arts based therapy and to find the feasibility of practice of arts based therapy in the nursing domain (Palo-Bengtsson et al., 1998). The importance of person centered care; 'embodied selfhood' Kontos (2004, 2005) for obtaining both activity and therapeutic beneficial effects on persons with dementia through various forms of arts based therapy is noticed long back. Nystrom and Lauritzen (2005) discuss the importance of planning a well designed arts therapy for promoting expression of self through nonverbal communication. Besides this, the use of technologies by the care providers in delivering arts based therapy pay attention to those factors that are likely to contribute to positive wellbeing in people with dementia.

Pages: 216-219
Vatsla Mohan (Department of Psychology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra)

The present study examined Das's Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive Processing and deficits in Word Reading, Sentence Comprehension, Spelling and Reading Composite achievement among children with low mathematical ability. The study was conducted on a sample of 180 children (90-low mathematical ability, 90-normal mathematical ability) in the age range of 10 to 12 years drawn from 14 schools in Ambala and Kurukshetra districts of Haryana. Mathematical Ability Test was used to categorize sample into two groups. All participants were tested on Das's Cognitive Assessment System and Wide Range Achievement Test- fourth version. The data were analyzed for descriptive statistics, t-test and discriminant function analysis. The results revealed that LMA children scored significantly lower in all the four PASS cognitive processes (p< .001). They further showed serious deficits across all the areas of achievement but one. Compared with normal children, the low mathematical ability group was significantly deficient in Sentence Comprehension (p< .001), Spelling (p< .001) and Reading Composite (p< .003). However the deficiency in Word Reading was negligible, hence not significant. Multivariate analysis of data revealed that PASS cognitive processes and achievement differentiated LMA group significantly. Results of discriminant analysis further revealed that 75.6% of LMA children were successfully identified through their scores on PASS cognitive processes and achievement tests.

Pages: 225-228
Sunita Tundwal and Rakesh Kumar Behmani (Department of Applied Psychology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, Haryana)

Stress has always been a part of human existence. In the context of stress, organisational stress has been of great concern to the management, employees, and other stake holders of the organisation. One widely investigated research focus with relatively less semantic confusion pertains to the study of the impact of role stressors in organisations. The current study examined with relationship of different organizational role stressors with a positive parameter referring to life satisfaction. 400 female police personnel completed Pareek's organizational role stress scale and Alam and Srivastava's life satisfaction scale. The correlational results revealed the relevance of perceived inter-role distance, role stagnation, role erosion, role overload, and self role distance in lowered life satisfaction.

Pages: 233-235
Suruchi Ahlawat and Ankita Budhiraja (Department of Psychology, M.D.U. Rohtak, Haryana)

Creativity is the ability to produce Novel and appropriate ideas, which act as very crucial elements of present human lifestyle. It helps to produce more and more innovative ideas. On the other hand, hope is also a very important element of life. It is a vital motivator of positive living. Psychologists operationally divide hope into two components, Pathways and Agency. Agency is related to one's capability to achieve goals, while Pathways consultant with the ability to generate alternative ways to achieve different goals. It was expected that a creative person would be found high on sense of hope. The present discussion aims to study relationship between creativity and hope. A purposive sample of 442 VIIth to IXth grade students of both genders, aged 12 to 15 years were selected from the Urban Area of Delhi. Result shows that there were Gender differences as well as interaction effect between creativity and hope. It was found that Creativity is closely related to hope. Findings of the present study can be applied on different School curriculum to raise the creativity level or level of hope amongst adolescents while they are facing different obstacles in their life.

Pages: 240-243
Mukta A. Karamadi (Dhempe College of Arts & Science Panaji, Goa, Research scholar on FIP at KUD)
Vijayalaxmi A. Aminabhavi (Department of Psychology, Karnatak University Dharwad, Karnataka)

The use of mother tongue against English, as medium of instruction, has created a wide spread debate all over the country. Decision about language (medium) of instruction in education policies is a challenging task to the policy-makers who have to give equal emphasis to students' native language to maintain linguistic and cultural identity, and to English to promote students' proficiency in the international language.The present study aimed at investigating the impact of medium of instruction on verbal, numerical and reasoning abilities and academic performance of school students. The sample comprised of 300 students studying in 8thstandard in the schools of Panaji city of Goa state. It was hypothesized that the students who had their primary education in mother tongue medium and those who had studied in English medium do not differ significantly in their verbal, numerical and reasoning abilities as well as academic performance. To measure these abilities sub tests of David's Battery of Differential Abilities by Sanjay Vohra (2011) were used. The data was analysed applying t-test. The results revealed that students with primary education in English medium have significantly higher verbal ability, numerical ability and academic performance than those with primary education in mother tongue medium.

Pages: 248-250
Arunashree B., Prachi Bhavesh Sanghvi and Pratiksha Praveen Kadkol (SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Sion- Mumbai)

A large number of studies have found that individuals with learning disability are more likely to experience multitude of problems like school dropouts, loneliness, adjustment problems, substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, etc. Attempts to promote positive outcomes in people with learning disability have become imperative. The current study, thus, examined whether there existed any relationship between self-determination and life satisfaction among adolescents with learning disability. Arc's Self-determination Scale and Satisfaction with Life Scale were administered to thirty adolescents with learning disability and thirty six adolescents without learning disability. A chi square was computed to understand the life satisfaction among adolescents with high and low Self-determination. Results showed that adolescents with learning disability had high association between self-determination and life satisfaction with statistical significance level χ2 (1) =4.8, p > .05.Implications of the study include the basic understanding of positive constructs like self-determination andlife satisfaction which is primarily seen among adolescents with learning disability that can help in formulating training and skill building modules for better adjustment and satisfaction.

Pages: 254-258
Amandeep, Manju Sharma and S.M. Paul Khurana (Amity Institute of Biotechnology Amity University, Gurgaon, Haryana)
Rekha Kansal (NRC on Plant Biotechnology, IARI Pusa Road, New Delhi)

At present market is flooded with different types of cooking oils, viz. Soybean , Sesame , Olive, Mustard , Sunflower, Canola , Rapeseed, Peanut , Rice bran and Coconut etc. Various available brands of these oils promise good heart health to keep you fit. But before choosing oil for everyday use one has to examine the balanced amount of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. The oils with low rancidity are preferred to escape event of oxidation. Besides, the smoking point of oils, also need to be taken into consideration to avoid consumption of trans fats. It is really difficult to choose from the pool of oils but it is true that making judicious selection is necessary to have palatable food for Indians, say sunflower, mustard, soybean etc.

Pages: 263-265
Akoijam Mamata Devi and Chinna Devi (Faculty of Nursing, S.G.T. University, Budhera, Gurgaon, Haryana)

Plastic baby/ collodion baby who looks like a rubber doll and sheds skin like that of reptile scales. The collodion baby is a descriptive term for the infant who is born encased in a tight shiny membrane that resembles plastic wrap. The collodion baby is not a disease entity but is the first expression of some forms of ichthyosis. The collodion membrane cracks and peels over the course of several weeks. The tightness of the membrane may cause the eyelids to turn out revealing the pink inner lid; a condition called ectropion. Eclabium, the turning out of the lips due to the tightness of the membrane, may accompany the ectropion, and may cause difficulties with nursing. When the membrane is completely shed the infant may display one of several ichthyosis skin types. Collodion babies are at high risk of some complications. The cracking and peeling of the membrane increases the risk of infection from microorganisms. These infants are also at risk for fluid loss, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, body temperature instability, and pneumonia. Collodion babies should be placed in a high humidity chamber, and monitored closely for complications. A high humidity environment will allow slow, gradual sloughing off of the membrane. The membrane will come off on its own and should not be peeled off. Application of mild petroleum-based moisturizers may help the infant feel more comfortable while the membrane is peeling off.

Pages: 270-272
Tania Ruby M. Thomas and Rajalakshmi M.S. (Department of Early Childhood Education and Administration, SMT. VHD Central Institute of Home Science, Bangalore)

Learning is an innate and natural process of exploration that children engage in from birth. 2-5 year olds are the most capable learners who require a quality early childhood educational setting. Recent research in the field of neuroscience, particularly on the brain, has provided convincing evidence of the 'critical periods' located within these early years for the forming of synaptic connections in the brain and for the full development of the brain's potential. Research has also indicated that if these early years are not supported by or embedded in a stimulating and enriching physical and psychosocial environment, the chances of the child's brain developing to its full potential are considerably, and often irreversibly, reduced. This stage in life is also important as a foundation for the inculcation of social values and personal habits, which are known to last a lifetime. Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) drive its importance from this rationale. Against this rationale, it can be said that the need of the hour today in India is an enriched cost effective learner centric model of early learning environment to motivate children and prepare them for formal school readiness and also motivate parents to keep their children at early learning centres. In India, early childhood educational setting falls in a dual track mode, where the ICDS is a public sponsored initiative which caters to the disadvantaged group and private initiatives targeted for the higher socio-economic families. India does not have a regulatory body to evaluate the early learning centres, to develop curriculum and to assess children. This scenario has led to many other problems such as, children not being school ready, dropping out of school, variation in the cognitive and academic development between the same age group. In the present day set-up, children attend preschool or a kindergarten before schooling and it has become an integral part of the education system. As there are no regulatory body in assessing the early learning centres, the early learning centres are being started in garages and other inappropriate settings, with limited spaces for children. This concept paper highlights the need for designing need based quality early learning centres which are welcoming, vibrant and flexible, responsive to children and their changing needs, interests and abilities. This would in turn foster holistic development of the child and ensure formal school readiness.