Prevalence of Perceived Stress among Adolescents in Selected School at Puducherry

Abstract

Adolescence is a stage of ‘Storms and Stresses’. The period of adolescence is of ultimate important in human’s life. In this period a person gets physical, mental and emotional maturity. Adolescents are faced with challenging issues involving the identity, puberty, formation and transition from childhood to adulthood. Unmanaged stress can cause adolescents with potentially significant health impacts and higher risk for behavioral problems, suicide and risky sexual behavior, smoking, substance abuse, school dropout, self-harm, and poor eating habits. So the practice of mindfulness meditation technique can help the adolescents to reduce stress and improves mental health of adolescents. Material and Methods: Quantitative research approach was used for this study. Sixty samples including male and female adolescents in New Modern Vidya Mandir Higher secondary school were selected by using simple random sampling technique (lottery method). The data collection was done by using Cohen Perceived Stress Scale. The data were analyzed by using Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney test. Result: The study showed that the level of perceived stress out of 60 Adolescents, 7 (11.7%) of them have low stress, 51 (85%) of them have moderate level of stress and 2 (3.3%) of them have severe level of stress. Conclusion: This study revealed that the level of perceived stress was high among adolescents.