Anxiety among Adolescent Students and its Association with Socio Demographic Variables in a Rural Block of Haryana

Background: Anxiety is one of the most common psychological disorders in school-aged children and adolescents worldwide. Anxiety is associated with substantial negative effects on children’s social, emotional and academic success. Objectives: To find out the prevalence of anxiety among adolescent students and its association with sociodemographic factors in rural block Beri. Methods: It was a cross sectional study taking the sample size of 600 (300 males and 300 females) studying in class 8th to 12th. A pre-designed, pre-tested tool SCL 90 R containing 90 items was used to screen anxiety in these students. Anxiety is one of the psychiatric morbidities screened by this tool. Cut off point of estimated raw score of 1 was used to label as anxiety. Results: It was observed that nearly 18.5% adolescents suffered from anxiety. Anxiety was highest in 17-19 years age group (30.4%) followed by mid adolescence phase (13-16 years). Anxiety was maximum in 10th and 12th standard students which were 19.3% and 24% respectively. It was significantly high among females (23.7%) than males (13.7%). Anxiety was maximum in upper and lower socio-economic class of students with 24.1% and 22.3% respectively. It was more among students whose mothers were unemployed (19.5%) than those whose mothers were employed (14.6%). Conclusion: More than one – third (35%) of study subjects who were apparently healthy suffered from unnoticed anxiety. Appropriate counseling through school-based screening programme is the urgent need of the hour.