Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 777-779
Heaven Dahiya and Sudesh Rani (College of Nursing, Pt. B D Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana)
Lokanathan V. (Department of Biochemistry, Pt. B D Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana)

A Pre-Experimental One Group Pre-test Post-test study was conducted to evaluate the Effectiveness of Video Assisted Teaching on Road Safety Measures among 120 school students from 9th and 10th standard from selected schools of Rohtak, Haryana by using purposive sampling technique. Structured knowledge questionnaire and rating attitude scale were used to assess the knowledge and attitude of school students. The findings of the study revealed that the mean post test scores were significantly higher than mean pre scores. There was no association found between the selected demographic variables with the knowledge and attitude scores of 9th and 10th standard students regarding road safety measures.

Pages: 783-786
Preeti Sharma (Counselor, Academy of Well-being, Udaipur and Research Scholar, Pacific University, Udaipur)
Mustafa Nadeem Kirmani (Department of Psychology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh)

Drinking practices and substance use disorders have increased significantly both globally and in India. Alcohol and substance use is a major concern on college campuses. College drinking is often considered socially acceptable behavior on the college social and cultural scene. College culture often views drinking as a rite of passage, encouraging behavior that is destructive to the college sub culture and general population. Alcohol use and abuse are cause of concern because the educational process and quality of campus student life are disrupted. There is growing concern about alcohol/substance abuse in India also. Precursors of drug and alcohol problems have been described as risk factors for alcohol abuse and are associated statistically with an increased probability of drug and alcohol abuse. There are host of risk factors including cultural norms and values, attitude toward drinking and substance use, legal factors, increased stress in the society, family factors, interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts, cognitive factors like expectancies and beliefs related to alcohol use. In the management of alcohol and substance use disorders, psychological interventions play a pivotal role. Interventions like social skills training, effective coping skills, drink refusal skills, cognitive behaviour interventions, family based and marital interventions are often employed in alcohol use. In recent years, motivation enhance therapy and mindfulness based urge surfing therapy have become common in clinical practice. The current paper will briefly discuss the components, process and efficacy of motivation enhancement therapy in the management of alcohol use.

Pages: 795-798
Tarun Mishra, Naveen, Indramani L. Singh, Tara Singh and Trayambak Tiwari (Cognitive Science Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh)

In daily life we usually scan the environment in terms of critical events over non-critical events. The ability to detect and maintain attention for extended periods of time is referred as sustained attention or vigilance. The present study examined the effect of visual warning cue on sustained attention task performance. Twenty undergraduate students of Banaras Hindu University were randomly assigned into two different experimental conditions. A 2 (warning cue: No warning, warning cue) x 4 (Block: 10 minute each) mixed factorial design with repeated measure on last factor was used. Super Lab software was used to design and conduct successive go/no-go visual sustained attention task. Reaction time, correct detection and incorrect detection were recorded as dependent measures. Findings revealed that participants took less time to respond, when warning cue was preceded the target. However, rate of correct detection and false alarm scores did not differ significantly under both conditions. Real world application of this research includes traffic system, system that requires operators to sustain attention to complex tasks while receiving and responding to warning.

Pages: 803-806
Mohammad Hossein Arab (Department of Clinical Psychology, Bushehr branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran)
Hossein Baghouli and Majid Barzegar (Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University Marvdasht branch, Marvdasht, Iran)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy on symptoms reduction and improvement of quality of life in patients with excoriation disorder. Research method was quasi-experimentalwith three-monthpretest and post test design. Thus, thirty patients with excoriation disorder (15 received mindfulness-based therapies as the experimental group and 15 received cognitive-behavioral the rapies as the control group)were selected through convenience sampling from patients attended one of the clinics in Tehran in 2014. Participants were asked to complete the short form of quality of life questionnaire and excoriation disorder revised-scale before and after treatment intervention and three-month follow-up. Findings showed that both the rapies were effective on reducing the symptoms and improving the quality of life of patients in both groups. According to statistical results, there was a significant difference due to preceding mindfulness-based therapy regarding cognitive-behavior therapy.

Pages: 810-812
Neethu P. S. (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry)

The present study investigated the effectiveness of six weeks stair climbing programme on selected physical and psychological variables of obese college students. Thirty obese female students aged 20-25 years were randomly assigned to control (n =15) and experimental (n = 15) groups. Experimental group climbed on staircases located within a four storey hostel building, consisting of 100 steps. The prescribed intensity was involved climbing 25 steps in one minute. BMI and self-esteem of both control and experimental group were measured before and after the training programme. The dependent t-test suggests that there is significant difference between control and experimental group in pre and post-test measures. The findings of the study provide evidence that stair climbing can enhance self-esteem reduce BMI of obese students. Given that such improvement resulted from this moderate exercise, stair climbing should be promoted as a health-enhancing physical activity.

`Pages: 817-822
Ushakiran Agrawal (Department of Psychology, Govt. D. B. Girls P. G. College, Raipur, Chhattisgarh)

The present study focuses at studying life sills among girls of Kasturbaa Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya KGBV of tribal and nontribal regions of Chhattisgarh , which is a residential school from class sixth to eighth and comparing the it with model and other school , aim of the study is to see girls of which school have highest life skills a total sample comprises of 720 girls 90 from 2 tribal KGBV ,90 girls from 2 nontribal KGBV , 90 girls from two model schools , 90 girls from 2 other schools. The results are significant in the sense that tribal pupil seem to be much prepared to challenges of life as compared to other schools including the KGBV of nontribal areas. It is also significant to note that the KGBV schools are doing well in giving education and environment to girls , which may be resulting in to development of better life skills as compared to other schools. The result forms a basis for consolidating the policy and demands for further penetration. This paper also indicates the importance of such studies at a much wider level.

Pages: 827-833
Shruti Shourie (Department of Psychology, D.A.V. College, Sector-10, Chandigarh)
Harshmeet Kaur (Department of Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh)

The field of Positive psychology intends to study positive human strengths and their benefit to enhance optimal functioning. Character strengths have been one of the key elements of Positive psychology. Gratitude and forgiveness are considered as character strengths and have received attention in empirical researches but majority of researches have been carried out among adults. The preventive nature of positive psychology has observed the need to enhance wellbeing early in childhood and adolescent years. The present study explored the relationship between gratitude, forgiveness and wellbeing among adolescents. The sample size taken was 250 (125 boys and 125girls). Statistical analysis included Pearson Product Moment correlation method and t-test. The results revealed that gratitude and forgiveness have been found to be positively correlated with psychological wellbeing. The study also indicated that gratitude and forgiveness showed positive correlation with life-satisfaction, positive affect and negative correlation with negative affect (components of subjective wellbeing). The attempt was made to explore gender differences in the study.

Pages: 837-840
Asra Ali and Rajalakshmi M. S. (Department of Early Childhood Education and Administration, SMT.VHD Central Institute of Home Science, Bangalore)

Given all the debates about how children should be taught, it may come as a surprise to learn that students spend less than 15% of their time in school. While there's no doubt that school is important, a clutch of recent studies reminds us that parents are even more so. A study published by researchers at North Carolina State University, Brigham Young University and the University of California-Irvine, for example, finds that parental involvement checking homework, attending school meetings and events, discussing school activities at home has a more powerful influence on students' academic performance than anything about the school the students attend. Another study, published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, reports that the effort put forth by parents (reading stories aloud, meeting with teachers) has a bigger impact on their children's educational achievement than the effort expended by either teachers or the students themselves. And a third study concludes that schools would have to increase their spending by more than $1,000 per pupil in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement. So parents matter a point made clear by decades of research showing that a major part of the academic advantage held by children from affluent families comes from the “concerted cultivation of children” as compared to the more laissez-faire style of parenting common in working-class families. Children who hear talk about counting and numbers at home start school with much more extensive mathematical knowledge, report researchers from the University of Chicago knowledge that predicts future achievement in the subject. Psychologist Susan Levine, who led the study on number words, has also found that the amount of talk young children hear about the spatial properties of the physical world how big or small or round or sharp objects are predicts kids' problem-solving abilities as they prepare to enter kindergarten. Research by Nancy Hill, a professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, finds that parents play an important role in what Hill calls “academic socialization” setting expectations and making connections between current behavior and future goals (going to college, getting a good job). Engaging in these sorts of conversations, Hill reports, has a greater impact on educational accomplishment than volunteering at a child's school or going to PTA meetings, or even taking children to libraries and museums. But often time's parents are clueless about how to teach their children. They adopt methods that their parents adopted, or their peers recommend. They encourage rote learning, and resort to question and answer sessions, looking to verbatim repetitons of what is in the note book. A child who is not strong on language skills may find this burden. It is at this juncture that the approach to learning through Multiple Intelligences framework comes in handy to parents. If parents are sensitised to applying the MI approach in their childrens learning, then learning can be made fun, meaningful and with positive outcomes for both the children and parents.

Pages: 845-847
Rajesh G. Meshram (Department of Psychology, Jijamata College, Nandurbar, Maharashtra)

Peer pressure is influence on a peer group or an individual that encourages others to change their attitudes, values, or behaviors to conform to those of the influencing group or individual. The need to follow the crowd and do what majority of us are doing forces us to do things or take up activities which we wouldn't otherwise. This is especially true for teenagers who are easily influenced by their surroundings or people they socialize with. However, recent studies have shown that peer pressure might have an upside to it; that in certain environments peer pressure can inspire an individual to be a more focused and determined individual (Tejaswini & Romate 2015).Peer pressure has become a big part of the adolescent lives. Whether they are at school or work, peer pressure can affect their output and even impact their general outlook on life. All of us, at some point in our lives, have had to deal with peer pressure. The need to follow the crowd and do what majority of us are doing forces us to do things or take up activities which we wouldn't otherwise. This is especially true for adolescents who are easily influenced by their surroundings or people they socialize with. Parenting styles can also affect peer influence. Authoritative parenting encourages adolescents to be less susceptible to peer influence specifically in domains in which peers are engaging in unacceptable behaviors, but more susceptible to peer influence in domains that are approved by adults (Mounts and Steinberg 1995). However, recent studies have shown that peer pressure might have an upside to it; that in certain environments peer pressure can inspire an individual to be a more focused and determined individual.

Pages: 851-854
Komila Parthi (Department of Psychology, DAV College, Sec 10, Chandigarh)
Ramanpreet Kaur (Department of Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh)

The departure point of this paper is the definition of materialism as a value as well as a trait. Materialism is seen in a negative light in the literature available on the topic. It is defined as the tendency to assign greater value to material goods and comforts as compared to the spiritual values. It has been a fodder for studies in various disciplines ranging from philosophy, sociology, political science, and psychology. This paper attempts to investigate the relationships between materialism and life-satisfaction, self esteem. To this end, the data was collected from a sample of teachers (N=400) from colleges and universities in Chandigarh. The statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS. The techniques of Pearson Product Moment Correlation and student's t-test were employed. It was observed that people's endorsement of a materialistic lifestyle negatively correlates with their life satisfaction and self esteem. The findings of the study reveal that gender differences exist when it comes to expression of materialism as a trait comprising envy, non generosity and possessiveness. The gender differences were explored on all the variables. Males scored higher on materialism, females scored higher on self esteem and no gender differences were found on life satisfaction.

Pages: 859-862
Shabnam Khan (Counsellor and Teacher, Happy Feet School, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh)
Shabahat Bano (Career Planning Centre, Abdullah Womens college, Aligarh, UP)

The behavior of the parents has direct effect on the children's psychological growth and behaviour. Parents are varied in their rearing practice and frequently unpredictable. Sometimes their interactions with children are tinged with odd combinations of beliefs such as personal prejudice, emotional regards, tradition and rule of thumb procedures. According to psychoanalytic theory social value and controls are largely interiorized on the basis of early parent-child interactions. Parents rear their children in the same way that they were reared by their parents. The reward with affection and privilege similar behaviours, punish with rejection and threats the same kind of misbehaviours for which they were chastised. This cultural drift is characteristically in the direction of the prevailing value of the general community with its gradual assimilation of new ideas, technology inventions and the shifting art. When the parents do not deal with their children in a proper way the children may develop internalizing and externalizing disorders, here we focus on externalizing disorders which includes disorders with behaviour that are disruptive and often aggressive. A high level of externalizing behaviour is an obvious indication of a potential problem. Children who do not pay attention, seems exceptionally active, behave aggressively, break rules and cause significant harm to other people and their property are need special concern and proper care of their parents and caretakers. The aim of the current study was to focus on how parental counselling can be helpful in dealing with externalizing behaviour of the child. So parents need special training and counselling to handle such type of children.

Pages: 865-866
Vasant Namdeo Borka (Department of Psychology, Nowrosjee Wadia College, Pune, Maharashtra)

School climate has often been described as the “quality and character of school life”, including both social and physical aspects of the school, that can positively promote behavior, school achievement, and the social and emotional development of students. Positive education has been defined as "education for both traditional skills and for happiness" (Seligman et al., 2009). A broader and more useful definition is "applied positive psychology in education". Positive psychology itself has been defined as an umbrella term encompassing theory and research in relation to what makes life worth living (Noble & McGrath, 2008). Positive psychology is extremely relevant to the school setting to assist in the understanding and development of high levels of psychological wellbeing in students, staff and school. Researchers have found that a positive school climate can help solve a lot of problems. Studies find that it decreases absenteeism, suspensions, and bullying, and increases students' academic achievement, motivation to learn, and psychological well-being. It can even mitigate the negative effects of self-criticism and socioeconomic status on academic success. In addition, working in this kind of climate lessens teacher burnout while increasing retention. The education policy framers in India need to pay heed to positive education, which is being successfully applied in progressive educational institutions of the world.