MENTAL HEALTH AMONG ADOLESCENTS

random sampling method. Variables Studied Independent Variables An attempt was made in the present investigation to study the Mental Health among adolescents. Aim: Objective: To study the differences between gender (male & female) and locality (rural & urban) on mental health among adolescents. Sample of the present study consists of 120 adolescent subjects in Chittoor district of Sample: Andhra Pradesh state. Mental health scale developed by Jagdish and Srivastava (1983) was administered. Tool: Conclusion: Results revealed signicant differences between gender (male & female) and locality (rural & urban) with regard to mental health. ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
Adolescence is a period of change in attitude and behavior, develops heightened emotionality, outlook, interests pattern and roles the social group expects them to play. Psychologically it is that period of life when an individual becomes integrated into the society of adults, the age when the child no longer feels that he or she is below the level of his/ her elders but equal at least in right. It is a period of rapid change and time of searching personal identity. This stage is called as the period of '"storm and stress", during this stage adolescents face many psychological problems like stress, physical stress, anxiety, aggression, undesirable complexes even sometimes depression and frustration. It may be due to self care, career, academics or other issues. These issues provide a major reason to researchers for conducting researches on the mental health on adolescents.
Mental Health is that "state of mind in which one is free to make use of his natural capacities in an effective and satisfying manner". It we accept is denition we will most likely view mental health as a determinant of academic achievement. According to Menninger (1963) "Mental health is the adjustment of human being to the world and to each other with maximum of effectiveness and happiness. It is the ability to maintain and even temper, and alert intelligence, socially considerate behavior and happy disposition".
Mental health is a positive concept related to the individual's social, emotional, and psychological well being. It is a psychological state of a man who is functioning at a satisfactory level of passionate and behavioral adjustment. Mental health is dened as a state of well being in which people realizes their own potentialities, can cope with the every day's normal stresses and work productively as well as fruitfully and are able to make contribution to her on his community. The concept of mental health is culturally dened, but generally relates to the enjoyment of life, ability to cope with daily stresses, sorrows and sadness, the fulllment of goal and potential and a sense of connection to others. Therefore mental health is an important aspect in individual's well being and health in general.

Review
Sushanta Kumar Roul and Saket Bihari (2015) designed to evaluate the mental health of school going adolescents in secondary schools. Results indicated that there is no signicant difference between mean scores of boys and girls adolescents on mental health in secondary schools. Pramod Kumar Naik, Prasanta Bhattacharjee and Aniket Sutradhar (2015) compared a study on mental health between rural and urban adolescent students and it is found that there are signicant differences among rural and urban students. Sankar, Mohammad Amin Wani and Indumathi (2017) explored to study the level of mental health among adolescents. The ndings show that boys have high level of mental health than girls. Results also show that there is signicant difference between the mental health scores of boys and girls. Parulben Harish Desai (2017) conducted to study the effect of gender, area of residency and type of family on mental health of adolescent students of higher secondary school. Results indicated that there is a signicant difference in mental health between male and female students. Also, there is signicant difference between in mental health rural and urban students.

Need and Importance of the Study
In the present study the prime objective is to study the signicant difference between male and female as well as rural and urban adolescents on their mental health. On the basis of the fact of present hectic tempo and strife in our society, where particularly students are facing stressful situation, it is necessary that their mental health be preserved by every possible way. Maintaining the mental health of the students is considered one of the primary aims of education because without satisfactory mental health, it is impossible to develop the child's innate abilities. Besides, children suffering from problems related to their mental health, it creates many other problems in the schools/colleges. If this situation continues, then the time will come when majority of the children will require professional treatment for coming out of their disturbances. So, it is felt by the researchers that to study the mental health of the school/college going students. The results of the study may help in developing better understanding of maintaining and preserving the mental health of adolescents.

OBJECTIVE
1. To nd out the differences in mental health among adolescents based on gender and locality.

Hypotheses
1. Male and female would differ signicantly in their mental health among adolescents. 2. Rural and urban areas would differ signicantly in their mental health among adolescents.

Sample
Sample for the present study consists of 120 adolescent subjects in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh State. The subjects were in the age group of 16-19 years selected and using purposive random sampling method.  Jagdish and Srivastava (1983) was choosen for the present study. It consists of 56 items. The reliability for the scale was found to be 0.79 using test -retest method and validity of the instrument is 0.91

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
The obtained data were subjected to statistical analysis such as Means, SDs, and 't' test were used. Table-I  The results of the present study corroborates with the earlier ndings of Sankar, Mohammad Amin Wani and Indumathi (2017) which states that gender is positively and signicantly related to mental health.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of the present study contradict with the earlier ndings of Sushanta Kumar Roul and Saket Bihari (2015) which states that gender is negatively and not signicantly related to mental health.

Hypothesis-2: Rural and urban areas would differ signicantly in their mental health among adolescents.
Table-II shows that signicant 't' value of 2.10 indicates that there is signicant difference between rural and urban areas students with regard to their mental health. Hence, Hypothesis -2 is accepted. It is proved that there is signicant difference between rural (M=141.46) and urban (M=131.65) with regard to their mental health.
The results of the present study corroborates with the earlier ndings of Pramod Kumar Naik, Prasanta Bhattacharjee and Aniket Sutradhar (2015) and Parulben Harish Desai (2017) which states that locality is positively and signicantly related to mental health.