Keywords: Anxiety; Adolescents

Introduction

The most common psychological disorder among the adolescents is the anxiety disorder [1]. In adolescents, anxiety disorder occurs when the anxiety feelings are persistently extreme and it will interfere the young people in their day to day activities [2].

According to DSM-5, the following disorders are comprised under anxiety disorders: agoraphobia, panic disorder, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder i.e. social phobia, separation anxiety disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and selective mutism [3].

Majority of the anxiety disorders will have the common clinical features such as physiological anxiety symptoms, extensive anxiety, behavioural disturbances includes extreme avoidance of feared objects, associated distress or impairment [4, 5].

The studies reported that the lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders among adolescents is about 15% - 20%. In that separation anxiety disorder is the most frequent disorder among the adolescents with 10% of specific and 7% of social phobias [6].

In the assessment of anxiety disorder, the special assessment strategies are needed. The age of onset of disorder is the most common factor to differentiate types of anxiety disorder [7, 8].

Risk factors of anxiety disorder includes personality, genetic, environmental and other factors include ongoing physical illness and the disorder will respond if it is treated in early stage [9]. The specific effects of anxiety include poor coping and social skills and it will lead into avoidance of social interactions low self-esteem, loneliness, difficulty forming friendship and perceptions of social rejection [10, 11].

Objectives:

•             To assess the level of the level of anxiety among school going adolescents.

•             To associate the level of anxiety among school going adolescents with their selected demographic variables.

Materials and Methods

The present study was aimed to assess the level of anxiety among school going adolescents at selected schools, puducherry. In order to achieve the study objectives, a quantitative research approach and a descriptive survey research design was used in this study. The research variable of the study was level of anxiety among adolescents. The study was conducted in a selected school at Puducherry. The population comprises of school going adolescents selected schools at Puducherry. The adolescents were selected according to the inclusion criteria. The sample size comprised of 30 school going adolescents. The process of selection of sample from the entire population is considered as sampling technique. Purposive sampling technique was used in this study. Inclusion criteria of this study were [1]. Age group of 13-15 years

Adolescents who are present at the time of data collection. The tool was divided into two sections. Section A: consists of demographic variables of the adolescents including name, age, sex, religion, education, occupation, and type of family, area, income and religion. Section B: consist of Manifest anxiety scale. Data was collected from each adolescence after obtaining individual consent. Adolescence were introduced about the study and researcher was collected the information by interview method.

Results

The result of the study predicted that the level of anxiety among the school going adolescents. Table 1 interprets the Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Demographic Variables of the subjects. Out of the 30school going adolescents who were interviewed, Majority of the school going adolescents 21 (70%) of study population were in the age group between 14 years. With regards of gender majority 18 (60%) were female. With respect to majority of 18 (60%) were studying in 10th standard and majority of 22 (73.3%) adolescents were the nuclear family. Majority of the school going adolescents were lived in urban area 26 (86.7%). With regards of the school going adolescents were family income is 18 (60%) in rupees 5000-10000. Other of the school going adolescents 28 (93.3%) were belongs to Hindu religion.

Table 2 reveals that the Frequency and percentage distribution of level of anxiety among the school going adolescents. In school going adolescents, majority of them had moderate level of anxiety 22 (73.3%), 6 (20%) were mild level of anxiety and few school going adolescents have severe level of anxiety 2 (6.7%).

In association of level of anxiety with selected demographic variables predicts that the religion was found to be highly significant at the level of p<0.001 and the gender shown statistically significant association at the level of p<0.05.

Discussion

The result of the present study predicted that, the level of anxiety among the school going adolescents. The Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Demographic Variables of the subjects. Out of the 30 school going adolescents who were interviewed, Majority of the school going adolescents 21 (70%) of study population were in the age group between 14 years. With regards of gender majority 18 (60%) were female. With respect to majority of 18 (60%) were studying in 10th standard and majority of 22 (73.3%) adolescents were the nuclear family. Majority of the school going adolescents were lived in urban area 26 (86.7%). With regards of the school going adolescents were family income is 18 (60%) in rupees 5000-10000. Other of the school going adolescents 28 (93.3%) were belongs to Hindu religion.

The Frequency and percentage distribution of level of anxiety among school going adolescents. In school going adolescents, majority of them had moderate level of anxiety 22 (73.3%), 6 (20%) were mild level of anxiety and few school going adolescents have severe level of anxiety 2 (6.7%).

The present study was supported with the study conducted by by Praveena Daya A (2018) was conducted a study on Depression, anxiety, stress and its correlates among urban school going adolescents in Tamilnadu, India.The sample consists of400 school going adolescents belonging to classes 10th to 12th. Convenient sampling technique was used in this study. The data were collected by DASS21 questionnaire. The results show the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was 73.6%, 86.5% and 24.7% respectively. Depression (p value=0.01), Anxiety (p value=0.005) and stress (p value=0.007) were significantly observed more among 10th class students when compared with other classes [12,13].

The another study by Noble Chacko (2018) conducted a study on the Prevalence of Stress among High School Students of Government and CBSE Schools in Kerala, India. The sample consists of 60 school students. Convenient sampling technique was used in this study. The data were collected by Student Stress scale. The results show that there is significant difference in prevalence of stress among high school students from CBSE and government high schools. The study concludes that their girls show more stress in high schools than boys [13]. In association of level of anxiety with selected demographic variables predicts that the religion was found to be highly significant at the level of p<0.001 and the gender shown statistically significant association at the level of p<0.05.