EFFECT OF INTERVENTION ON SELF MANAGEMENT SKILLS AMONG FARM WOMEN DURING COVID-19 IN TELANGANA STATE
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Date
2021-12-08
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PROFFESSOR JAYASHANKAR TELANGANA STATE AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
Abstract
Agriculture is the back bone of India and is considered as the largest sector of
the country’s economic activity. Covid-19 pandemic caused social and economic
disruptions globally by creating profound and potentially long term impact on
psychological health, economic, social life of people at all stages specially women.
Studies also revealed that most of the women in agriculture were penalized with extra
burdens, facing difficulties in making arrangements in both family and work life during
pandemic. They were also not able to take care of their health and personal needs,
control their own emotions and behaviours and often experienced stress, tensions and
anxieties during pandemic. Self-management skills are the abilities that allow people to
control their emotions, thoughts and actions. Person who have strong self-management
skills are able to cope up with stressful situations, organize and function well in their
daily life there by maintaining better health status and perceived psychological
wellbeing. Several studies revealed that self-management skills like self-regulation,
self-monitoring, positive thinking, problem solving, time management and stress
management etc were poor in women especially from marginalized communities due to
lack of proper training. So, it is imperative to provide intervention to farm women in
enhancing their knowledge on better self-management skills to deal with crisis
situations effectively. Hence, the present study was taken up to examine the effect of
intervention in enhancing self-management skills among farm women during pandemic.
An Experimental research design was adopted for the study to know the effect of
intervention on self-management skills before and after exposure to intervention
programme. A total of 60 rural farm women were randomly selected from four villages
of Nalgonda district of Telangana State. An interview schedule was developed to study
the existing levels of self-management skills among farm women. Based on the pre-test
results, knowledge gaps were identified in ten components of self-management skills
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and developed intervention modules by incorporating Power point presentations, lecture
com focused group discussions, brain storming sessions, role plays, case studies, video
presentation and informal games etc. for better involvement of the respondents. A pilot
study was conducted on 20 samples to check its feasibility and required modifications
were done. Intervention was carried for 15 respondents in each village for a period of
one month. Each day intervention was carried in two villages. Thus, total intervention
programme was spread over 60 days for all the 60 respondents. With the gap of two
weeks, post-test was conducted by using the same interview schedule. Data was
analysed by using frequencies, percentage, mean, SD and Paired-‘t’ test.
The general profile of the farm women revealed that, majority of farm women
were in the age group of 31-35 years, belonged to nuclear families, had 2-3 children and
studied up to primary education. More than half of them were daily wage workers
followed by agricultural labours and earned about Rs.5,000 -10,000 per month. Majority
of the farm women were belonged to lower middle SES category and few were in upper
lower SES category. Most of the farm women had moderate level of support systems.
More than half of them had low followed by moderate level of self efficacy and were
using avoidance coping strategies rather than approach coping methods to deal with
stressful situations.
The pre-test results revealed that, the overall self-management skills were low
among two thirds of the farm women followed by medium and high among only meagre
per cent prior to intervention. Self-motivation, self-confidence, Problem solving skills,
Stress management skills, Self-care and Self-awareness were poor among more than
sixty per cent and Self-monitoring, Self-control, Positive thinking and Time
management skills were poor among more than half of the respondents prior to
intervention.
After intervention there was a significant increase in the knowledge scores of
farm women related to overall self-management skills at 0.01 level. Majority of farm
women had moderate level followed by high level of self-management skills after being
exposed to intervention. Farm women with poor self-awareness, poor self-care, low
self-monitoring skills and poor time management skills were upgraded to high level
followed by moderate level after receiving the intervention. Farm women who had low
self-motivation, poor self-control, low self-confidence, low positive thinking skills, poor
problem solving skills and low stress management skills were upgraded to moderate
level followed by high level after being exposed to intervention. In all the ten
components of self-management skills the mean differences between pre-test and post test scores were significant at 0.01 level.
Based on the above results, the present study concludes that, the intervention
planned under study had significant positive effect in enhancing the knowledge on self management skills of farm women. It helped the farm women in adapting better self management skills during Covid-19. Thus, the present study supports intervention
theories and self-management theories as it proved that education and training creates
awareness on better self-management skills among the respondents. The current
intervention package can also be used as a resource material for the professionals
working for the psychological empowerment of women