Psychosocial Competency Program for Rural Government School Children in Karnataka

Psychosocial competency is strength and ability to deal effectively with demands and challenges of everyday life. It plays an important role towards the overall development of human being. Schools are significant social institution for children's psychosocial development as it's assumed that schools environment is favorable to the social and emotional growth of children. Rural children in India mostly attend government schools where group harmony and interdependence are strongly encouraged but individualistic values may experience more difficulties in social interaction; as a result they may feel frustrated and develop attitude towards others and self. The current study aims at understanding the effectiveness of psychosocial competence programme conducted in rural school as part of community mental health program of NIMHANS, Bengaluru. 172 students of class 6th, 7th and 8th from seven rural government schools participated in the program. Psychosocial competence programme on nine different themes was conducted using participatory methodology. Feedback was collected from students about their learnings in each session. The learnings were quantified as appropriate and in appropriate responses to discuss the results. Majority of children were from lower socio-economic background. Mean percentage of appropriate responses of children about each session ranged from 50.71% to 78.2. Female children were consistent in attending the sessions. The mean percentage of appropriate responses were significantly higher among the children who attended more than 7 sessions compared to children who attended less than seven sessions. Significant difference (p< .05) was found in appropriate responses and strength of the class. Development of psychosocial competencies is multidimensional in nature. Well-structured, well planned and well implemented school based intervention programmes would lead to significant improvement in psychosocial development of children.