The role of social support in mental health of orphan adolescents

Psychologists have suggested for good social network and better Perceived Social Support for adolescents to maintain proper conditions of health. The present study attempts to explicate empirically the relationships among the domains of Social Support and those of Mental Health in relation to the level of perception and conditions of rearing of orphan adolescents. This is an empirical investigation in psychology which involved 2 (rearing status) x 2 (level of support) factorial design. Accordingly, there were 200 (100 family reared and 100 institutionalised) adolescents in this study. They were administered two standardized scales named “Health Behaviour Questionnaire” and “Perceived Social Support Scale” to find out the impact of rearing condition, level of support in procuring domains of mental health. The findings of the study as reflected in the results highlighted certain interesting dimensions of the study. Most of the findings are similar to the hypothesis made in the study. However, some musual findings have also been derived in relation to interaction effect of Perceived Level and Rearing Conditions on some domains of mental health like coping to crises, control over environment and freedom from anxiety. Similar findings have also been yielded with respect to components of social support such as Perceived Integral Social Support. With the above findings some socially useful suggestions have been recommended for future care of Orphan adolescents.