Understanding Mental Health of Adolescents: An Empirical Study on School Students

The present study focused to find out the role of age, gender and their interaction on Academic anxiety, Perception of social media and Mental health of adolescents. For the exploration of the objectives, a 2 (Age) x 2 (Gender) factorial design was adopted. The sample consisted of 400 adolescent school students studying in high schools (class IX and X) and higher secondary schools (class XI to XII) with a mean age of 15.5 years. It included 200 males and 200 females. Out of them, there were 100 males and 100 females each in early and late adolescents. Results revealed that female adolescents had higher Academic anxiety compared to their male counterparts, and the age and gender interaction effect indicated that females in late adolescence experienced the highest level of academic anxiety. Neither gender nor age had any significant effect on Perception of social media. In the context of mental health, early adolescents had better Mental health than those in late adolescence. Results were discussed on the light of fast changing social life, ethical values, gender sensitization and the impact of digital media on the young minds of the growing adolescents who desired to stay connected 24 X 7 with a virtual world for instant pleasure and gratification of personal-social needs.