RAJIV GANDHI UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

BANGALORE, KARNATAKA

ANNEXURE II

PROFORMA FOR REGISTRATION OF SUBJECT FOR DISSERTATION

1 / NAME OF THE CANDIDATE AND ADDRESS (IN BLOCK LETTERS) / Ms. SINTA JOSEPH
FIRST YEAR M Sc NURSING
B G S COLLEGE OF NURSING
APOLLO BGS HOSPITAL
MYSORE- 23
2 / NAME OF THE INSTITUTION / B G S COLLEGE OF NURSING MYSORE- 23
3. / COURSE OF STUDY AND SUBJECT / FIRST YEAR M. Sc. NURSING
MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
4. / DATE OF ADMISSION / 15-6-2010
5. / TITLE OF THE TOPIC
EFFECTIVENESS OF COUNSELING ON IDENTITY CRISIS AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN A SELECTED PRE-UNIVERSITY COLLEGE AT MYSORE”
INTRODUCTION
The needs of children during adolescence are particular and acute.
They need an opportunity to develop a sense of identity and
to maintain the sense of security that
emanates from group acceptance.- Elliot W. Eisner
Adolescence is the transitional stage of development between childhood and full adulthood, representing the period of time during which a person is biologically adult but emotionally not at full maturity.1 The World Health Organization (WHO) defines adolescence as the period of life between 10 and 20 years of age2.In terms of etymology, adolescence comes from the Latin word adolescere, which means "to grow up" or "to grow into maturity."3 The reference to growth is nonspecific and could conceivably apply to physiological, psychological, or social growth. It is necessary therefore to agree on a more specific definition. Adolescence in the sociological sense refers to the experience of passing through the unstructured and ill-defined phase that lies between childhood and adulthood. 4 It is one of the dynamic stages of human development . Adolescent is accompnied by dramatic physical, cognitive, social, and psychological changes that present both opportunities and
challeges for adolescents, families, health professionals , educators and communites . 5
Erik Erikson was the first major psychological theorist to develop the notion of an adolescent "identity crisis.6" In his view, all of the earlier crystallizations of identity formed during childhood come into question during adolescence with the overwhelming combination of physical changes, increased sex drive, expanded mental abilities, and increasing and conflicting social demands."7
“I was… the loser of my class. I had absolutely no friends”
~ Neve Campbell
One of the imporatant psychological changes for this developmental stage is the emerging importance of peer group8. Peer group is the out let of an adolescent during transitional stage that they provide a sense of comfort ,love and acceptance. During transitional phase, the peer group can be said as the real world providing him a stage upon which tries out him self and others. It is in the peer group that he continues to formulate and revise his concept of self. For all these reasons it would seem of virtual importance to the adolescent that his peer group contain a number of friends who can accept him and upon whom he can depend.
"Everyone who deals with teens seems to agree that the most important and toughest job is staying in connection and conversation ... not delivering a lecture but saying what we think." Ellen Goodman
adolescents, is a difficult time for parents and teachers and some times
coinciding needs for independence and support ,so that, this vulnerable group ofcourse demands relentless care and meticulous attention. Here, the importance of proper guidance and counseling arises. Counseling is such an important healing and ventilating therapy that will enable the adolescents who are searching for a sense of identity, to look inside themselves, rather than out side, but to find answers for unanswerable questions, to resolve the conflicts of unresolved problems and eventually to withstand the pressures of this contemporary world , so that a young, vibrant, energetic, and productive new generation both physically and mentally healthy will form
6.BRIEF RESUME OF INTENDED WORK:
6.1 NEED FOR THE STUDY :
Today's generation of young people is the largest in human history. Nearly half the world's population- more than 3 billion people-are under the age of 25. Within the world of the young, adolescents are at a particularly formative stage. It is surprising that, 1.2 billion adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 are brimming with energy and possibilities.10 United states census beauro estimates the current figure of (2010) 6,883,900,000 of adolescents that they are preparing themselves to fly to the world of knowledge, skills, values and opportunities and the whole world is looking them through the eyes of expectations and hope because the soul of a nation lies at the hands of its yong ones.When it comes to india ,population in 2010 is around(1.15
billion). It is amazing that among this our future assets represents (adolescents) 41.05% of the total population of our country.
But ,a study was conducted by National Institute of Mental Health and neurosciences , indicates that one in five children have some sort of mental, behavioral, or emotional problem, and that one in ten may have a serious emotional problems in India. Recent Indian research studies also reveal that 10-74% of indian adolescents are suffering from some sort of emotional problems , Taking all these children and teens, who is struggling with emotional and behavioral problems, a mere 30% receive any sort of intervention or treatment11The other 70% simply struggle through the pain of mental illness or emotional turmoil. Emotional Problems about 20% of parents were somewhat or very concerned that their child might be suffering from serious emotional problems.
However, it is a fact that adolesents is such a critical period that they have undergone stress and strains such as emotional conflicts, physical changes, searching for identity, these all together constitues such a big burden for them and it makes this stage such a crucial period in every ones life that any other stage of life does not have. Numerous studies have shown that problems due to identity crisis leads them to behavioral problems such as suicide and anti-social behavior
Though every age has problems, the adolescent period is especially difficult for boys and girls to cope with and this is mainly because of two reasons.The foremost reason is that the problems and needs of adolescents were not met and solved by
parents and teachers ,as a result many adolescents are struggling to coping with problems alone. The second reason for this is that adolescents want to feel and express that they are independent, and they demand maximum freedom,but the parents and teachers treat them as if small children and they try to restrict their freedom
The problems of adolescents include physical, mental, emotional, and sexual. Sudden body changes will put the adolescents in pressure .The unspecified physical changes will sometimes lead to behavioral abnormalities .The main emotional problems includes anxiety ,depression, identity crisis, frustration, low selfesteem,lack of confidence , loneliness10. The parents often feel neglected and are often worried about child’s behavior and many times they feel that they lost the control over their children. The problems initiated in the home extent in to the school and the child may develop problems which includes absenteeism., lack of interest in studying ,coping, laziness and other behavioral problems and these all things together will give a big burden to the teacher
Whenever we go to a new place we want to know about the details of that place. In that case a guide can help us to move smoothly around that place and help us in solving our problems. Adolescence is a phase which makes a person enter into a new world and they are in the same stage they have difficulty in relationships11 — dealing with parents, peers and teachers— physical problems, and face bullying and ragging
issues. Problems affect them at the psychological, emotional and physical levels, and it is then that the question of ‘what’s the purpose of living’ pops up in their mind,”. Proper guidance and counseling is quite essential inorder to channelize the emotions of adolescents in the direct way. Counseling will help the adolescents a better understanding of themselves, and their goals and values .and it helps to develop skills for improve relationships. Counseling again helps the adolescents find resolutions to their problems .Moreover it helps to learn new ways to cope with stress and anxiety .Counseling is crucial in adolescent so that it will enable adolescents to manage grief, anxiety, depression and it will improve communication and listening skills .Counseling will help the adolescents in such a way that it will change the old behavior patterns and developing new ones.
Taking everything in to consideration, the problems due to identity crisis is inevitable in every teen’s life .The parents and teachers should help the students to cope-with the crisis due to identity. Certainely, through guidance and counseling services adolescents can be helped to solve the problems.To be more precise, counseling will enable the teens to identify themselves,will provide deep insights ,make adjustment to the dramatic physical and emotional changes and eventually mould an individual who is emotionally strong and stable .Personal and social identity is the sense of self. It is the answer to our quest for who am I, our values, beliefs Seeking an identity means locating one’s place in the social setup. Identiy also refers to one’s skills and attributes as a person. At this juncture, counseling enables an adolescent to resolve the conflicts and
find answers to his questions hence,find an identity in the society,
The researcher during her community postings and personal experience found that in homes there are teenagers who are struggling to cope with the problems due to identity crisis. Parents and teachers are also in a conflict situation that they are facing difficulties to handle their problamatic teens wisley. so the researcher felt the need to help the teenagers to cope with the problems of identity crisis and their by reducing their emotional conflicts and hence help them to maintain an identity in the society.Thus the researcher selected this topic for this research.
6.2 Review of Literature
i.  Studies related to identity crisis among adolescents
ii.  Studies related to effectiveness of counseling on adolescents
A co- relational study was conducted by Indian Statistical Institute at Kolkatha to determine the ego-identity status and it relationship with self-esteem .The sample of the study consists of 650 college students from different districts of West Bengal namely,Murshidabad, Birbhum and Kolkata.. Due to some missing information and outliers, the final sample size was 590, out of which there were three 53 male and 237 female students. The age range of the students varied from eighteen to twenty two years with a mean age of 18.82 years. Rosenberg self esteem scale was used for the assessment of self-esteem. The study also wants to see whether gender and location (rural, urban) has significant effect on identity status of late adolescents. The results of the study revealed that those having high identity achievement status have high self-
esteem, especially in the areas of occupation and ideological belief for religion. On the other hand, adolescents who are in crisis and not made commitment have low self-esteem. The analysis also indicated that ego-identity status of students differed with respect to gender and rural-urban location. This study contributed to adolescent literature by exploring identity status and self-esteem in Indian adolescents with emphasis to those living in West Bengal12.

A study was conducted to determine the process of ego identity formation in late adolescents. The purpose of this study was to examine the internal process of identity formation in late adolescence in relation to the psychosocial identity crisis from the viewpoint of the individual-group conflict. A sample of 252 University students were classified into one of three types, depending on two phases of the individual-group conflict: (a) whether or not the conflict has been experienced; and (b) if so, whether or not the conflict had already been solved. The traits of each type were subsequently determined by examining the individual's awareness of their relationship with the group and their sense of identity. The main results of the study: indicates that (a) the experiencing of the individual-group conflict was closely related to the unsettling of the sense of identity. (b) Men tended to resolve the conflicts better compared to women13.

A study was conducted on the emotional problems of school children in JJM medical college Davangere Karnataka .The study is based on the need that emotional problems in school children may result in low level of scholastic performance.. Screening tools

,self assessment tools ,and observation tools were used based on parental or teachers' observation.. The sample of the study consists of 218 school children and they were selected through multistage random sampling. The study was conducted in three stages. In the first stage, all the students were administered six-item version of GHQ to screen for emotional problems. Raven's Progressive Matrices was administered to evaluate IQ. In the second stage, parents assessed their child's behavior using CPMS. In the third stage, all students were subjected or detailed clinical work-up. 22students dropped out of the study for various reasons. Finally there were 283 as the sample. To detect emotional problems in the sample, GHQ was administered to students, CPMS was administered to parents of the children. Tools used are Six-item version of GHQ and Child Psychopathology Measurement Schedule CPMS were considered as cases.. The results of the study after detailed assessment, indicates that the psychiatric diagnoses were prescribed according to DSM-IIIR criteria Out of two eighteen students, one thirty one were positive on GHQ and ninety eight students were positive on CPMS. Students who were positive on both scores were only sixty seven. When these one sixty eight students who were positive on GHQ and/or CPMS were subjected to detailed clinical assessment, one thirty five cases were clinically positive for emotional problems. In addition among the fifty cases, which were negative on screening instruments, seventeen cases were positive on clinical interview after clinical interview, out of one thirty one positive cases on GHQ, one seventeen were true positive cases and fourteen were false positive cases. Out of the eighty seven negative cases, thirty five

were false negative cases14.

A five –wave longitudinal study was conducted to determine the identity formation in adolescence and the study is conducted in 923 samples early to middle adolescents (50.7% boys; 49.3% girls) and 390 middle to late adolescents (43.3% boys and 56.7% girls)and the main aim was to provide a comprehensive view on change and stability in identity formation from ages 12-20.Seveal types of change and stability (i.e., mean-level change, rank-order stability, and profile similarity) were assessed for three dimensions of identity formation (i.e., commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration), using adolescent self-report questionnaires. Results revealed changes in identity dimensions towards maturity, indicated by a decreasing tendency for reconsideration, increasingly more in-depth exploration, and increasingly more stable identity dimension profiles.. Overall, girls were more mature with regard to identity formation in early adolescence, but boys had caught up with them by late adolescence. Taken together, findings indicate that adolescent identity formation is guided by progressive changes in the way adolescents deal with commitments, rather than by changes in the commitments themselves15 .