Home Environment, Mental Health and Academic Achievement Among Secondary School Students

Mental health is perceived as a positive source contributing to asset development individually, socially, and economically (WHO, 2004). The World Health Organization conceptualized mental health separate from mental ill-health and defined the concept as: a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her own community. Better mental health outcomes in adolescents are characterized by greater adaptation in family, society, and school environment, improved quality of life (Hoagwood et al., 1996; USDHHS, 1999). The rise in mental health issues in adolescents is a growing concern in the school and for the community counsellors, and educators. Research has revealed an increasing incidence of depression and other mental health issues among youth (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999, Cash, 2003). As the aim of education is to provide healthy personality for individuals and one of the important ingredients of education, the role of mental health is crucial not only in formal education centers but also, in informal education –such as family and societies. Various studies have been carried out in different parts of the world to identify factors that impact on students‟ mental health since poor mental health has been recognised as the leading cause of suicidal behaviour, a sense of helplessness (Kay, Li, Xiao, Nokkaew & Park, 2009) and lower academic achievements (Puskar & Bernardo, 2007). According to previous studies, factors that influence mental health are demographic backgrounds such as age and gender (Yen, Hsu, Liu, Huang, Ko, Yen & Cheng, 2006), academic field and academic year (Dahlin, Joneberg, & Runeson, 2005), personality traits (Goodwin & Friedman, 2006) and loneliness (Wang, Yuen & Slaney, 2009) Human mental health has not been a focus of attention until the beginning of the 20th century with the formation of Mental Hygiene Movement by Clifford Beers in 1908 (Turner 1971). Home environment is the most important institution for the existence and continuance of human life and the development of various personality traits. An ideal home environment is one where there is proper reward to strengthen the desired behavior, a keen interest in and love for the child, provision of opportunities to express its views freely, where parents put less restrictions to discipline the child, not preventing the child from acting independently and not continuing infantile care, optimum use of physical and affective punishment, where the children are not compelled to act according to parental desires and expectations. Studies show that high parental involvement leads to high achievement and low parental involvement leads to low achievement (Ahuja and Goyal 2005). Family being the first and major agency of socialization plays a pivotal role between children and their parents. Parental involvement is much more likely to promote adolescent school success when it occurs in the context of an authoritative home environment (Steinberg et al. 1992). Parental acceptance and encouragement are positively related with academic school success and competence (Lakshmi and Arora,2006). Daulta (2008) studied the impact of home environment on the scholastic achievement of children and found that good quality of home environment had significant positive correlation with high level of scholastic achievement in boys than among girls. Shek (1997) has found that family factors play an important role in influencing the psychosocial adjustment, particularly the positive mental health, of Chinese adolescents. Whether parents are involved in and support their adolescents, school life can directly affect their personal and social development as well as their academic success (Gecas & Schwalbe, 1986; Harris & Goodall, 2008; Jeynes, 2007). Indeed, a substantial body of literature documents the existence of such a relationship (Christenson, Rounds & Gorney, 1992; Epstein, 1992; Izzo et al.,1999; Keith et al., 1998). Kim‟s (2002) research findings indicate that parental involvement makes a positive contribution to children’s educational achievement. Epstein (1992) argues that “students at all grade levels do better academic work and have more positive school attitudes, higher aspirations, and other positive behaviors if they have parents who are aware,knowledgeable, encouraging, and involved”

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. To find significant sex differences in mental health among secondary school students. 2. To find significant differences in mental health among secondary school students with good and poor home environment. 3. To find significant differences in mental health among secondary school students with high and low academic achievement. 4. To find significant interaction between sex and home environment among secondary school students with mental health as dependent variable. 5. To find significant interaction between sex and academic achievement among secondary school students with mental health as dependent variable. 6. To find significant interaction between home environment and academic achievement among secondary school students with mental health as dependent variable. health as dependent variable.

HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY:

1. There will be no significant sex differences in mental health among secondary school students. 2. There will be no significant differences in mental health among secondary school students with good and poor home environment. 3. There will be no significant differences in mental health among secondary school students with high and low academic achievement. 4. There will be no significant interaction between sex and home environment among secondary school students with mental health as dependent variable. 5. There will be no significant interaction between sex and academic achievement among secondary school students with mental health as dependent variable. 6. There will be no significant interaction between home environment and academic achievement among secondary school students with mental health as dependent variable. 7. There will be no significant interaction among sex, home environment and academic achievement of secondary school students with mental health as dependent variable.

MENTAL HEALTH BATTERY (MHB):

Gupta (1971) . MHB intends to assess the status of mental health of persons in the age range of 13 to 22 years. As it is a battery of six tests. There are set of 130 items in the MHB with six dimensions-emotional stability (ES), over all adjustment (OA), Autonomy (AY), security – Insecurity (SI), self -concept (SC) and Intelligence (IG). This battery is satisfactorily reliable and valid.

T In the present investigation academic achievement constitutes the aggregate marks obtained by the subjects in their 10th class examination.

In the present study the students studying in class X in secondary schools located in Gujarat constitute the population and a representative sample from this population has been selected by the investigator. The sample of the present investigation was drawn from five schools. The total sample of the students in the present research is 300 consisting of 150 boys and 150 girls.

The main purposes of the present study was to see the impact of home environment, academic achievement on mental health of Higher Secondary school students. Maintaining a healthy attitude involves not only the physical health, psychological development, the shape of the good moral character and the cultivation of the perfect personalities of majorities of students but also the overall quality of the talents, for the full realization of higher education goals and the smooth progress of modernization construction and progressive development of society. This is important since previous studies indicate that poor mental health status have a negative effect on students‟ academic performance (Puskar & Bernardo, 2007), and promote negative behaviour and hopelessness (Kay et al., 2009). Rohner and Britner‟s (2002) longitudinal evidence reveals that parental rejection tends everywhere to precede the development of a variety of mental health problems, such as depression and depressed affect, conduct problems and behavior disorders, and substance abuse. Therefore, this information is important to community counsellors, teachers, school counsellors, and parents; all of whom are concerned with both the academic and social-spiritual development of children, and with the climate of children‟s learning environment. Given area of learning or in other words, achievement is reflected by the extent to which skill and knowledge has been level of achieving is how far a student succeeds in a particular exam or standardized test (Reber, 1985).

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