A Study on the Wellbeing of Adolescents from Disadvantaged Backgrounds

Abstract

Wellbeing is central to the healthy development of adolescents. The wellbeing of an individual during childhood predicts his future wellbeing. The aim of the present study is to examine psychological wellbeing of adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds. The study further examined the psychological wellbeing with respect to gender, age and dimensions. The current study used a cross-sectional survey design with a sample size of 152 students from three low-resource schools in Bangalore. A self-assessed, standardised scale was used to measure the psychological wellbeing of adolescents. The study employed descriptive statistics and an independent t-test for the statistical analysis. The results revealed that the majority of the students from disadvantaged backgrounds exhibited a moderate to low level of wellbeing. The analysis showed significant differences in the psychological wellbeing of male and female students and in two dimensions of wellbeing. The findings of the study indicated the need to foster the wellbeing of adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds.