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Mental Health and Self-Esteem of Institutionalized Adolescents Affected by Armed Conflict

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Abstract

The primary purpose of this paper was to compare the epidemiology of mental health problems and self-esteem of conflict hit adolescents living in charitable seminaries with their counterparts brought up in natural homes. Substantive body of the literature illustrates the emotional and behavioral issues experienced by these adolescents. In this study, 27 adolescents from a charitable Muslim seminary and 30 adolescents from a regular school were recruited. Self-report measures and clinical interview were used to measure mental health and self-esteem. The findings indicate that adolescents in institution setting may not be having mental health and self-esteem-related issues when compared to adolescents living in intact by parent homes. While the authors acknowledge the limitations of the study, these findings need further research to examine the causes for these differences.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Mr. Ramani for giving us permission to use the YSR questionnaire and also to Ms. Jha, Dr. Ibrahim and Mr. Bilal for their comments and support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Room-A235, Hall XI, Kanpur, 208016, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Firdous Ahmad War

  2. Department of Education, Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Rifat Saroosh Ved

  3. Department of Psychology, Jamia Mallia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    Mohammad Altaf Paul

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  1. Firdous Ahmad War
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  2. Rifat Saroosh Ved
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  3. Mohammad Altaf Paul
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Correspondence to Firdous Ahmad War.

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War, F.A., Ved, R.S. & Paul, M.A. Mental Health and Self-Esteem of Institutionalized Adolescents Affected by Armed Conflict. J Relig Health 55, 593–601 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0057-y

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