Perceived anxiety and stress among orthodontic adolescent students

Pages: 768-770
Lata Rathi (Orange City College of Social Work, Nagpur, Maharashtra)
N. R. Mrinal (Ex. Head Department of Psychology RTM, Nagpur University, Nagpur, Maharashtra)

Dental Disfigurement is a major problem for a person who is suffering from Malocclusion. Malocclusion, is a technical name given to crowded, irregular or protruded teeth. In the present investigation the Anxiety and Stress are studied with reference to Dental Disfigurement among Adolescents. The 8 SQ Questionnaire (Cattell, 1976) was administered to 50 Male (age range 12-20 years) and 50 Female(age range 12-20 years) patients to investigate anxiety and stress with an equal number of Normal’s having no dental disfigurement. Both the groups, experimental and control were matched on age and sex. It was found that experimental group, adolescents suffering from malocclusion scored significantly greater on Anxiety (M=14.34) as compared with normal’s ( M=11.8), F=15.04,p<.01. Similarly the Stress was also found to be significantly greater in adolescents suffering from malocclusion (M=15.11 as compared with the normal's (M=12.83), F=11.56, p<.01. The interaction between A*B was found to be significant which means the gender has an influence on Stress. The females (M=15.06) scored significantly greater than males (M=12.88), F= 10.56.