Mental Health and Personality Traits of Urban Slum Adolescents

The aim of the present study was to investigate mental health in relation to personality traits of school going adolescents from urban slums of Bhubaneswar, India. There are approximately 1 billion slum dwellers in the world, and projected to grow to 1.4 billion by the year 2020. Research demonstrates that children and adolescents living in slums shoulder a poor mental health and disturbed personality compared to their adult counterparts. The present study intends to get a holistic picture of the personality patterns and mental health status of school going adolescent boys and girls from urban slum areas aged 16-19 years. 60 senior secondary students (30 boys and 30 girls) from two urban slum areas of Bhubaneswar, Odisha studying in two Government Colleges (B.J.P Autonomous College and Ramadevi Women's College of Bhubaneswar) in Bhubaneswar, Odisha were selected for data collection. Mental Health Battery short form MHB-SS and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R) were selected for collection of data. Overall mental health has negative and significant relationship with psychoticism which shows that since majority of the adolescents have good mental health. However, adolescent boys and girls did not differ significantly on various dimensions of mental health and personality. Policy makers in field of mental health should ensure that there is adequate and proper mental health services for those having indications of mental health problems in school going adolescents from urban slums. The results have an implication for future research.