Mental Health and Psychological Well being of Adolescents

The field of global mental health has recently emerged, which has been defined as “the area of study, research and practice that places priority on improving mental health and achieving equity in mental health for all people worldwide”. Moreover, people who are mentally healthy can deal with difficult situations in a better manner (Smith & Segel, 2011) and they remain focused, flexible and creative at all times. The period of adolescence is a time of redefining and developing relationships with parents, peers and society. Biological changes interact with psychological characteristics of the person and the changes in the social environment influence the adolescent's mental health that affects psychological wellbeing to a great extent. Psychological wellbeing is characterized by self acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy and positive emotions. Teenagers of today are a pressurized lot. The fear of humiliation because of below par performance, lack of self confidence to confront the ever changing challenges and the need to work like robots are all pervasive. The present paper enumerates the problems of stress, depression, academic achievement and life skills in general of adolescents in the present socio-cultural scenario. Mental health is not an end in itself but it should be treated as a means to achieve and enhance psychological wellbeing to lead a goal-directed meaningful life, which in turn nurtures good mental health.