Psychosocial Problems among School going Adolescents in Pokhara

Abstract

The adolescence the second decade of life is the crucial period demanding significant adjustment to the physical and social changes. During this transition between childhood to adulthood rapid demand for new social roles takes place. Among varieties of development aspect, psychosocial development is crucial one and is affected by different factors related to family, community and school. Imbalance in those factor lead to development to psychosocial problem. If adequate care and attention is not given adolescents are prone to develop various psychosocial problems with long standing impact. This descriptive cross-sectional study aims to assess the prevalence of psychosocial problem and its associated factors among adolescents studying in public schools of Pokhara Lekhnath Metropolitan City using in sociological perspective. To fulfill the objectives, descriptive cross sectional design and purposive sampling technique were used to select 360 students. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaire and interview schedule. Data was analyzed in Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 applying both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that 21.7 percent of adolescents has psychosocial problem, working children had more problem than the non-working school children. Adolescents more likely to have psychosocial problem were who has les fulfilled basic needs, followed by not feel good about presently residing home environment, have high academic/school related stress, who do not stay with their parents, who were working, increasing work hours, who perceived lower level of social support from their family and friends, had hardly sufficient family income, who were from joint family, whose mothers are illiterate, those from family follow Hindu religion and having disrupted marital status of parents. Hence, in light of these findings combined efforts of family, school team, social workers and school health service providers is essential to protect adolescents form developing psychosocial problems. Children’s engagement in child labor has significant negative impact on their psychosocial status so working hour, basic needs sought for the special concern and need to be addressed. Government, NGOs, INGOs, social workers, employers and the community must share the responsibility and develop the need based strategy for eliminating psychosocial risk factors faced by the children at work. Teachers should be educated about the warning signs of psychosocial impairment. There is a strong need for the post of counselor in the schools with periodic screening of children and better parent teacher association. Last but not the least the role of sociologist seems imperative to explore why these factors leads to psychosocial problem among adolescents.