A STUDY OF MENTAL HEALTH IN RELATION TO SPIRITUALITY AMONG ADOLESCENTS

In the present age of science and technology science and spirituality are considered to be two distinct entities. When science is materialistic in its attempt, spirituality lacks materialism. It is noteworthy that the more the wonder when the science does the less importance is given to age old spirituality. Is spirituality really a trivial one? And does it not help us to achieve mental peace and harmony? are the research questions. Hence an attempt was made in the present study to find out the relationship between mental health, a state of psychological well being and spirituality. A random sample of 119 students studying senior secondary course in three higher secondary schools in Puducherry was drawn. The mean age of the students was 16 years. Mental health questionnaire developed by Sharma (2002) was used to assess the level of mental health and Spiritual Index Scale (SIS) developed by Mahendran (2012) was used to measure the level of spirituality. Correlation analysis was employed to find out the association between mental health and spirituality. The results showed evidence that spirituality is associated with mental health. Demographic variables such as gender, residence (rural/urban) and type of school were included in the study. The impact of demographic variables on spirituality was tested through t-test.