A STUDY ON MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN RESIDING IN GOVERNMENT INSTITUTION AND SOS MODEL INSTITUTION IN GUNTUR DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH
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Date
2018
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Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University
Abstract
Children are the pillars of the nation. The growth of a child depends on his/her family. But in few cases children are placed in institutions. Institutionalized Children are infants and young children who are raised in institutions. Maintenance of mental health appears to be most crucial to the maintenance of the other aspects of the human health. It has been noted that the body responds to the way individuals think, feel and act, which is often referred to the “mind/body connection. When there is a breakdown in mental health, the physical health, as well as the social health tends to suffer more. Although many studies were found on mental health status of children residing in institutions and non-institutions but very few studies were done on comparisons within the institutionalized children. Hence the present study was proposed to study the mental health status of children residing in Government and SOS model institutions. The present study focuses on knowing the mental health status of children residing in Government institution and SOS model institution in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.
The present study was conducted on 120 subjects, 60 each from Government and SOS model institutions. The study was Ex-post facto designed and the sample was collected by purposive random sampling method. The present study was carried out in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. General profile of respondents was collected by using general information schedule. Mental Health Status of institutionalized children was measured by using Mental Health Battery (MHB) developed by ArunKumar Singh and Alpana Sen Gupta (2005).
Results on general profile of children revealed that most of the sample age ranged between 13 and 14 years. Most of the institutionalized children were found to be as paternal orphans and maternal orphans in both the institutions. Children who were staying since 7 years were more in number in both Government (67%) and SOS model institutions (40%). Children were admitted into the institutions mostly by mothers in both the Government institution and SOS model institution. It was found that majority
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(90%) of the children from SOS model institution secured more than 75% marks whereas less than half of the children (47%) in Government institution secured more than 75% marks in their academics.
Regarding Mental Health Status, it was observed that majority of children residing in both the Government and SOS model institutions had average levels of emotional stability and self-concept. In Government institution, more than half of the children scored average in the dimensions like over-all adjustment (63%), autonomy (60%) and half (50%) of the children scored average in the dimension of intelligence. In SOS model institution, majority of the children scored high in the dimensions like over-all adjustment (73%), autonomy (92%), security-insecurity (80%) and majority (88%) of the children were having medium level of intelligence. Majority of children from both the institutions were having good mental health status. It was found that there was a significant difference between Government and SOS model institutionalized children in the dimensions of mental health like over-all adjustment, autonomy, security-insecurity, intelligence and no significant difference was found between Government and SOS model institution children in the dimensions of mental health like emotional stability and self-concept.
Significant difference was observed between Government institution and SOS model institution in-terms of overall mental health status favoring children residing in SOS model institution. Hence there is a need to address these differences by providing better psychological environment to enhance the mental health status of institutionalized children.
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D5756
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