Principles of psychosocial assessment of adolescents

Psychosocial Problems among School Going Adolescents in Nepal

Background

Psychosocial problems refer to the difficulties faced by adolescents in different areas of personal and social functioning. Adolescents are vulnerable to psychosocial problems because of physical and physiological changes that occur in their body during this developmental stage. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify psychosocial problems among school going adolescents in Nepal.

Methods

A cross-sectional descriptive study was adopted. Nonprobability convenient sampling technique was used for selecting 287 adolescents. Ethical approval was taken from Nepal Health Research Council and self-administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data collection was done in 2016. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used to analyze the data.

Results

The findings of this study show that 12.9 percent of adolescents had psychosocial problems. While categorizing psychosocial problems, the adolescents had internalizing problems (44.6%), attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) (25.8%), and externalizing problems (4.2%). There is association of age group and parent's marital status with psychosocial problems.

Conclusion

It is concluded that psychosocial problems (i.e., internalizing problems, ADHD, and externalizing problems) were prevalent among Nepalese school adolescents. Adolescents' age group and parent's marital status are associated with psychosocial problems. This study recommended that school authority, health professionals, and other professional related to child health and mental health should play an important role for the prevention and earlier recognition of and intervention for psychosocial problems.

Study of family factors in association with behavior problems amongst children of 6-18 years age group

Background:

The ‘behaviour problems’ are having major impact on child's bodily and social development. The family provides emotional support to an individual as well as plays a major role in the formation of one's personality. The quality and nature of the parental nurturance that the child receives will profoundly influence his future development. The knowledge of these family factors associated with behaviour problems may be helpful to identify at risk children.

Aims and Objective:

To study the family factors associated with behaviour problems amongst children of 6-18 Yrs age group.

Setting:

an adopted urban slum area of Govt. Medical College, Miraj Dist-Sangli.

Design:

Cross sectional study.

Materials and Methods:

the sample size was calculated based upon 40% prevalence obtained in pilot study. Total 600 Children in the age group of 6-18 years residing in the urban slum area and their parents were interviewed with the help of predesigned, pretested proforma. Analysis: chi-square test and risk estimate with Odd's ratio.

Results:

Our study result reveals significant association between prevalence of behaviour problems with absence of either or both real parents and alcoholism in the parent or care taker.

Conclusion:

The behaviour problems have good prognosis if they are recognized earlier. Family has great role in prevention of behaviour problems in children, so parental counseling may be helpful.

Psychosocial morbidities in school going adolescent girls: a study from a South Indian city

INTRODUCTION

Adolescents form about 20-30% of our population. Like the children of any other ages, adolescents have the so called usual problems and problems which are specific for their age and developmental peculiarities. The present study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of the psycho-social problems of adolescent girls and to counsel the girls with problems or those who were problem prone.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study in which 500 adolescent girls from 6 higher secondary schools were selected via a simple random sampling method. A psychiatrist was consulted before the study was undertaken. A pre-designed profoma was given to be filled up and the data was analyzed later.

RESULTS

Sixty percent of the girls were in the age group of 14 to 15 years. Depression was noted in 10 girls (2%), symptoms of anxiety were noted in 5 girls (1%), stuttering and a poor concentration were observed in 10 girls ( 1% each), 2 girls (0.4%) came from broken families, 5 girls (1%) were suffering from anorexia nervosa, 3 girls (0.6%) were suffering from bulimia nervosa and 10 girls (2%) had pychosomatic symptoms. 5 girls (1%) reported interpersonal violence among their hostelmates.

CONCLUSION

Finding out the prevalence of the psychosocial problems among adolescent girls and counselling them appropriately can decrease the major psychosocial morbidities which are prevalent in the community.