A STUDY ON MENTAL HEALTH STATUS OF INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILDREN RESIDING IN GUNTUR DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH
Loading...
Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University
Abstract
Institutional care is considered as an appropriate measure for providing
care to orphan and destitute children in India. Numerous Government and Nongovernment
organizations, trusts, and private individuals across the country
provide institutional care to those children whose family is either unable to
provide them with adequate care due to poverty, illness etc., or there are no
immediate family members to take care of them as they are orphans.
Mental health is important for individuals, especially children. The
consequences of poor mental health in childhood extend into adulthood,
increasing the likelihood of low educational achievement, criminality and
violence, adult mental disorder, unhealthy lifestyles and the risk of ill health.
There appears to be only few research studies conducted on mental health status
of institutionalized children in India and particularly in Andhra Pradesh. Further
there are no research studies done comparing the mental health status of children
residing in institutions run by Government and Non-government bodies. To plan
any policies or interventions to improve mental health status of the
institutionalized children residing in Government and Non-government
institutions, more empirical research is required. Hence the present study is taken
up.
The present study was carried out in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh to
study the mental health status of institutionalized children. An Ex-post facto
research design was adopted for conducting the study. Systematic random
sampling procedure was used to select 60 girls between the age group of 10-15
years. After screening the children based on the criteria that they should have
stayed in the institution for at least 2 years by purposive sampling. Out of which
30 from Government and 30 from Non-government institution were selected. The
independent variables for the study were age (years), age at the time of
institutionalization, class, Duration/years of stay in Institution, Quality of
xvi
institutional environment. The mental health status of children is considered as
the dependent variable. The personal information of the child was collected
through an interview schedule developed for the study and the general
information of the institution was collected using the schedule prepared. The data
related to quality of institutional environment was collected using OVC (Orphans
and Vulnerable Children wellbeing Tool) developed by Shannon et al. (2009),
which comprised of 10 dimensions, namely Food and Nutrition, Shelter,
Protection, Family, Health, Spirituality, Mental Health, Education, Economic
Opportunities and Community Cohesion. The mental health status of the children
was assessed using Mental Health Battery (MHB) developed by Singh and Sen
Gupta (2005).The 6 dimensions of Mental Health Battery are Emotional stability,
Over-all adjustment, Autonomy, Security-Insecurity, Self-Concept and
Intelligence.
The data on general profile of institutionalized children revealed that
majority of the children were in the age of thirteen and fourteen years. Most of
the institutionalized children were found to be as paternal orphans. Children who
were staying since 8 years were more in number in both Government and Nongovernment
institutions. It was observed that majority of the children were
admitted in the institutions by their own mothers. The academic performance was
good in children residing in Non-government institution compared to those
residing in Government institution. Significant difference was found in
perceptions related to quality of institutional environment between the
Government and Non-government institutions. It was found that children
residing in Non-government institution had better perceptions about their
institutional environment than children of Government institution.
The present study focused on understanding the differences in mental
health status of Government and Non-government institutionalized children. The
results of the present study showed that there was a significant difference
between Government and Non-government institutionalized children on mental
health. Children from Non-government institution had better score on Emotional
stability and Intelligence dimensions whereas children from Government
institution scored high on self-concept dimension. It was found that there was no
significant difference between Government and Non-government
institutionalized children in terms of Over-all adjustment, Autonomy and
Security-Insecurity. Finally it was concluded that there was a significant
difference between Government institution and Non- Government institution
children in terms of over -all mental health status favoring Non- government
Institutionalized children.
Hence measures should be taken to improve the institutional environment
to enhance the mental health status of institutionalized children in general and
Government institutions in particular.
Description
D5755
Keywords
null