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This article delves into the escalating challenge of mental health and substance abuse among university and college students. It underscores the mounting worry over mental health care crises within higher education. The stable persistence of alcohol and drug use over the last two decades is noted, attributing it to maladaptive coping mechanisms. The article aims to understand the influence of external factors such as low alcohol prices, advertising, and easy availability on increased substance use. The conclusion investigates the correlation between heavy episodic drinking and problematic behaviors among university and college students, presenting a comprehensive view of the pressing issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to understand the parental stress, psychological distress, and parenting practices of parents of pre-schoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods and Materials: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted with the parents of preschool children aged 3–6 years. Researchers used the Parental Stress Scale, Self-Reporting Questionnaire, and Parent Practice Interview to collect data from parents in the Southern Indian city of Bengaluru. Results: A total of 60 responses were obtained from the online survey. Moderate to a high level of parental stress and mild to moderate levels of psychological distress were found among the parents. Around 21 (35%) of parents were found in need of mental health consultation. The study found no group differences in parental stress and psychological distress among various socio-demographic variables. The study found a significant association between parental stress and the parenting practices of participants. Higher mean scores were observed on mothers in setting clear expectations of pre-schoolers. Conclusion: Parenting young pre-schoolers is a difficult task. COVID-19 pandemic has made the parenting process challenging for parents. Parents must engage the children at home, and helping them cope with the new environment is a tightrope walk. Such uncertainties are supposed cause distress and lead to poor parenting parents among the parents, especially with pre-schoolers who are more demanding. There is a need to address parents' concerns and train them to deal with the situations effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Disasters have a great and lasting impact on children physically and psychologically because of their particular physiological and social developmental stage. Disasters are recognized as potential risk for the overall development of children, and children exposed to disasters require some abilities or protective factors which serve as a shield to buffer the risk. The present study was aimed at studying the role of sociodemographic factors on psychological impact and resilience among children exposed to disasters. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used to accomplish the study. The study included 100 out of 502 children, 25 each from four schools from four villages selected randomly of four zones of district Anantnag using multi-stage sampling and systematic sampling. The Children Revised Impact of Events Scale-13 and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-25 were used to assess the posttraumatic symptoms and resilience among the children. Results: The results showed that children had mild-to-moderate level of posttraumatic symptoms, and majority of the children had intermediate to high resilience. This study provided interesting results that female children were found high on resilience and low on posttraumatic symptoms, which is not usual. Significant differences were found between resilience and gender, education, socioeconomic status, income, and domicile as well. Similarly, differences were found between posttraumatic symptoms and displacement, family type, domicile, and education. Conclusion: Flood disasters increase the psychological vulnerability for children. To prevent the potential risks, children need protective factors. The present study highlighted that psychological resilience can be improved by looking and improving the sociodemographic factors and making promising ways of establishing resilience-building strategies to regain the spirit of children and families at individual and community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Practising and promoting healthy lifestyle behaviours have been one of the major challenges during the COVID-19 Pandemic due to lockdown measures and mandatory isolation. The changing lifestyle concerns and anxiety and stress due to uncertainty about this pandemic have been considered negative implications of COVID-19. Aim: The current study was undertaken to assess the participants' health promoting lifestyle profile due to the COVID-19 related quarantine and isolation. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was used to assess the participants' health-related lifestyle profile due to COVID-19 related quarantine measures. Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile -II and socio-demographic sheet with behaviours and practices questions were used to assess changes in health promoting lifestyle behaviours using online platform. Results: The health promoting lifestyle survey was completed by the (n- 126) participants. The lowest mean scores on the health promoting lifestyle profile questionnaire were found in the domains of physical activity (mean=17.57), health responsibility (mean=20.17) and management of stress (mean=21.09) during the lockdown whereas the highest scores were found in domains of nutrition (mean=23.67), spiritual growth (mean=25.27), and interpersonal relationships (mean=24.15). A significant reduction in the physical activity was coupled with increase in high calorie intake among the participants. Participants were found to have sustained at least one meaningful relationship during the lockdown and regularly attending educational programs on personal health care. Conclusion: The pandemic has witnessed a downfall in physical activities, sleep patterns and increase in nutrition and stress levels among the participants creating a vulnerability of developing metabolic syndromes and affecting immunity. Suggests need for bringing strategies for promoting healthy lifestyle to prevent the occurrence of such metabolic concerns in future epidemics and pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Severe mental disorders during childhood and adolescence can be chronic and disturbing, and may result in serious impairments in functioning. Research on the influence of such factors in the functional recovery of children diagnosed with severe mental illnesses is scant. This study aims to enhance understanding of the patterns and descriptions of social factors in the optimal functioning of children with severe mental illnesses., Methods: We performed content analysis on 69 medical files of children taking treatment from Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (from 2018 to 2020). We analyzed the medical files using the summative approach by identifying and quantifying certain words and phrases. The Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) and data abstraction form were used to record the functioning profile and quantitative data. Socio-demographic and clinical variables were analyzed using descriptive statistics., Results: A total of three major and ten sub-categories were identified from the data. The most striking categories in psychosocial environments were intrapersonal challenges, adverse living and relationship spaces, and outer structures and systems. Moderate to severe functional impairments were retrospectively observed among children., Conclusion: Children diagnosed with severe mental illnesses and with poor functioning are the most affected group of population and hence, require proper attention., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: A multidimensional family support and well-being programme (FSWP) was initiated to support the families of children in conflict with law (CICL) and strengthen their participation in the integration process. This programme aims to successfully reintegrate children into the family and build parental capacity to manage them. This study presents the overview of the multidimensional FSWP initiated in an observation home, facility for CICLs, Bengaluru, a metropolitan city of India., Methods and Materials: The team of psychiatric social workers systematically delivered the family support programme to promote families' involvement at multiple levels (individual, relationships, community, and societal) for successful reintegration of children in communities. The preliminary data about the participants was collected using strengths and difficulties questionnaire and parent interview schedule., Results: The programme activities consisted of engaging parents and family members in the parenting management training programme, addressing their psychosocial issues, identifying resources for postrelease rehabilitation and promotive interventions with children and their parents. The FSWP activities are developed to increase positive outcomes like favorable behavioral changes in children and emotional regulation, frequent participation and support of parents in the trial and rehabilitation process, and encouraging parental involvement in for successful community reintegration and placements of children., Conclusion: The family characteristics are integrally related to delinquency and practioners need to integrate such factors to improve parenting behaviors and enhance positive relationships between families and children., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2022 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.)