School Environment as Determinant of Mental Health among Rural Adolescents

The present investigation was conducted to study the school environment as determinant of mental health among rural adolescents. The study was based on 200 adolescents (i.e., 100 boys & 100 girls). The sample was purposively selected from Government Senior Schools of Fazilka District. Self-structured general information sheet was prepared to collect the general information of the adolescents. Mental Health Battery by Singh and Gupta (2000) and School Environment Scale (Misra, 2012) were used to assess the mental health and school environment of the adolescents. Results revealed that majority of adolescents had average mental health and school environment. Boys were found to be significantly better than their counterparts as well as in overall mental health except in the dimension of emotional stability where girls were found to be significantly better than boys at high level. Significant gender differences were observed in creative stimulation and permissiveness dimension of school environment where boys scored better than girls. School environment was found to be positively and significantly correlated with adjustment, autonomy, intelligence dimensions as well as overall mental health of adolescents. Cognitive encouragement of school environment contributed positively and significantly towards the mental health of the adolescents.