INTRODUCTION:

Anxiety is consider being a normal reaction to stress. It may help a person to deal with a difficult situation, for example at work at school, by prompting one to cope with it. When it becomes excessive, it may fall under the classification of an anxiety disorder¹

Stress is the feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous²

Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, feelings of tiredness and poor concentration³.

NEED FOR THE STUDY:

India‘s adolescent population is 242,991,000 and it constitutes 20 percent of the world‘s adolescents. (census 2011). There are about 1.2 billion adolescents worldwide and one in every five people in the world is an adolescents. This is a unique group of people with special needs.⁴

Mental Health is as necessary for living a successful and happy life as physical health. Excessive anxiety in children may lead to mental health problems that interfere with normal development and functioning. Early adolescence and early adulthood are peak years for onset of schizophrenia.⁵ Mood disorders such as clinical depression and bipolar disorder can initially show in adolescence^6.

In today’s society, stress is an expected part of life. Yoga, positive thinking and self affirmation exercises can help to achieve stress control. Yoga can be useful for improving health, happiness and preventions if stress and anxiety. It also helps to improve the memory and concentration. In short yoga is necessary to improve quality of life.⁷

Students coping strategies may prevent them from adverse outcome often associated with significant stressors learning more about how children and adolescent successfully cope with stressors may provide strategies for school psychologists to intervene with at risk students to help them cope more successfully. There are various form of yoga practice. They are breathing techniques, pranayama and physical exercises. Pranayama is the breath work which increases the blood circulations and brings more oxygen to the brain and enlarges lung capacity and makes the muscle more flexible.⁸

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

A study to evaluate the effectiveness of self-affirmation exercises on control of depression, anxiety and stress among adolescents in selected destitute home at Puducherry.

OBJECTIVES:

1. To assess the pre-test of depression, anxiety and stress among the adolescents residing in selected destitute home at Puducherry.

2. To assess the effectiveness of self-affirmation exercises on control of depression, anxiety and stress among the adolescents residing in selected destitute home at Puducherry.

3. To evaluate the post-test level of depression, anxiety and stress among the adolescents.

4. To determine the association on pre-test level of depression, anxiety and stress of the adolescents with selected demographic variables.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS:

H1: There will be significant difference in the level of depression, anxiety and stress among the adolescents who underwent before self- affirmation exercises.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The quantitative research approach and pre experimental one group pre test – post test design was used in this study. The study was conducted in APJ Destitute home at Puducherry. The study comprised 100 adolescents who fulfilled inclusion criteria, which were selected by convenient sampling technique. The data was collected by self-rating scale. Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS Scale) was used to assess the level of depression, anxiety and stress level.

Scoring of DASS Scale

Severity	Depression	anxiety	Stress
Normal	0 to 9	0 to 7	0 to 14
Mild	10 to 13	8 to 9	15 to 18
Moderate	14 to 20	10 to 14	19 to 25
Severe	21 to 27	15 to 19	26 to 38

After getting formal permission from managing director of APJ destitute home, the selected samples were informed regarding the research and informed consent was obtained. 20 to 30 minutes time was given to the samples to complete pre-test. Then the self affirmative exercise was demonstrated to the samples and the intervention schedule was followed for 5 days. After intervention post test was done.

Intervention Schedule:

DAY: 1 Deep breathing exercise.

DAY: 2 Mental exercise on positive thinking through role play.

DAY: 3 Mental exercise on positive attitude through video.

DAY: 4 Health educations on positive way of thinking through handouts supplements.

DAY: 5 Relaxation session of showing their competencies.

Data were collected, complied, analyzeed and interpreted by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

The distribution of demographic variables with respect to the age of adolescents on the study shows majority of subjects 60% lies in the age group of 11-14 years. Regarding gender majority 72% were male. As per the data, the maximum subjects 92% were Hindus. As per findings the subjects based on the education of 76% subjects were high school. Maximum 47% of samples were not practicing any measures to handle stress. Thus the majority of the adolescents had no habit of doing yoga exercise and listening to music.

The existing level of depression among the adolescents majority 70% had the mild and moderate depression level. The pre-test mean score of depression was 22.5000 with standard deviation 10.66146. The existing level of anxiety among the adolescents majority 65% had the mild and moderate anxiety level. The pre test mean score of anxiety was 25.0000 with standard deviation 15.85350. The pretest results showed that in, majority of the adolescents, 70% had the mild and moderate stress level. The pretest mean score of stress was 32.6667 with standard deviation 23.0000. Thus, there is no significant association exist between the pre test depression, anxiety and stress levels with demographic variables.

After teaching self affirmation exercises to the subjects the post test depression anxiety and stress level was evaluated. The result showed the majority of adolescents had 35% mild depression level, 40% had mild anxiety and 37% had mild stress, which clearly shows that there was a significant reduction in the level of depression, anxiety and stress with a mean score of 17.2500 and standard deviation 16.66083.

The effectiveness of self affirmation was examined by a paired ‘t’ test. The ‘t’ value of 0.740, 1.305, 1.566 shows that it was statistically highly significant at p<0.001 level which clearly shows that self affirmation exercises can be used in controlling depression anxiety and stress among adolescents. Thus, the hypothesis H1 was accepted.

Table 1: Percentage distribution of pretest and post test level of depression N=100

Level of depression	Normal	Mild depression	Moderate depression	Severe depression
Percent	%	%	%	%
Pretest	52	30	18	0
Post test	56	36	08	0

Fig 1: Percentage distribution of Pretest and post test level of Depression of the adolescents.

Table 2 Percentage distribution of pretest and post test level of anxiety N=100

Percent	Normal %	Mild anxiety %	Moderate anxiety %	Severe anxiety %
Pre test	56	38	06	0
Post test	76	21	03	0

Fig 2: Percentage distribution of Pretest and post test level of anxiety of the adolescents.

Table 3 Percentage distribution of pretest and post test level of stress. N=100

Level of stress	Normal	Mild stress	Moderate stress	Severe stress
Percent	%	%	%	%
Pre test	34	42	24	0
Post test	35	49	16	0

Fig 3: Percentage distribution of Pretest and post test level of Stress of the adolescents.

CONCLUSION:

The effectiveness of self affirmation in controlling depression anxiety and stress was evident by comparison of pretest and post test level of depression, anxiety and stress using a paired ‘t’ test. The ‘t’ value of shows that it was statistically highly significant at p<0.001 level which clearly shows that self affirmation exercises can be used in controlling depression anxiety and stress among adolescents.

The Self affirmation exercises has achieved a consensus opinion on reducing depression, anxiety and stress, and improving the well-being of people with these conditions. This provides a checklist for the identification of key components, commonalities and differences in interventions in prior research in the field. Future research can proceed to develop and evaluate consensus-based yoga intervention protocols for the reduction of depression, anxiety and stress, and improvements in well-being.

REFERENCES:

1. Bimla kapoor “psychiatric nursing” published by kumar publishers New Delhi. VoII Page no. 270-290.

2. www.nfhs.com

3. Kay tasman (2006) “essential of psychiatry” publlished by john wiley and sons limited. Pg no. 540-554.

4. chaterji, p., et al., (2004). Cost assessment of a school-based mental health screening and treatment program in New York city. Mental health services research, 6, 155-166.

5. Kaplan and Sadocks (2009) Comprehensive Text book of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, Lippincott William, 7^th edition, vol I and II, 1441-1445

6. Brown and gerbarg (2005) sudarshan kriya yogic breathing in the treatment of stress, anxiety and depression, part II clinical application and guidelines, jounal of alternative compliment medicine 711-717.

7. Antony, M. M., Bieling, P. J., Cox, B. J., Enns, M. W., and Swinson, R. P. (1998). Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales in clinical groups and a community sample. Psychological Assessment, 10(2), 176-181.

8. Henry, J. D., and Crawford, J. R. (2005). The short-form version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales DASS-21): Construct validity and normative data in a large non-clinical sample. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44(2), 227-239.

Received on 16.02.2022 Modified on 14.03.2022

Int. J. of Advances in Nur. Management. 2022; 10(2):141-144.

DOI: 10.52711/2454-2652.2022.00036