promoting mental health through self awareness among (PDF)

e-ISSN: 2582-5208 International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science Volume:03/Issue:01/January-2021 Impact Factor- 5.354 www.irjmets.com www.irjmets.com @International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering, Technology and Science [51] PROMOTING MENTAL HEALTH THROUGH SELF AWARENESS AMONG THE DISABLED AND NON- DISABLED STUDENTS AT HIGHER EDUCATION LEVEL IN NORTH 24 PARGANAS Monojit Pal*1 *1M. Phil Scholar, Department of Education, Jadavpur University, India. ABSTRACT Self - awareness is one of the most important life skill, identified by WHO. self-awareness is considered as a foundation of all other life skill. Self- awareness means having clear perceptions of our personality including our strength, weakness, thought, belief and emotion and also means pathway to happines.in the 21st century for achieving this happiness in our daily life activity we face so many challenges/obstacle and try to overcome this challenges we need practices this core life skill including self awareness. For the fulfilment of the goal learning to live together in contemporary society it is very much necessary to discover yourself first Specially disabled students, who are face many types of problem in their day to day life. So having proper self-awareness among the students with different types of disability is much more important for solving their life’s problem. The paper seeks to analyse present status of self awareness among the disabled persons in the North 24 parganas region. Key words: Self-awareness, Disability, Life skills. I. INTRODUCTION Mental health is important now a days and seen as an essential element of our general health, well- being and quality of life. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. According to WHO(2001) “Mental Health is a state of Well-being in which the individual realizes his/her abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to his/her community”. It is seen that more than 450 million people suffer from various mental disorders. According to WHO (2020) depression will constitute the 2nd largest disease burden worldwide (Murray and Lopez, 1996).it also shows that 1 out of 7 people have one and more than one mental disorder or other disease which is related to mental illness. Previous reviews, meta-analysis, studies and independent reports have indicated that nearly 100 million persons in India are in need of systematic care based on data (NHMS, 2015-16). Various strategies to promote the mental health are, create the supportive environment, necessary life skill relate to mental health, physical as well as mental exercise like- yoga, mindfulness, governmental awareness, social awareness, and self-awareness and etc. In the study the researcher wanted to put emphasis on self-awareness as a necessary life skill to cope with the normal stresses in daily life situation. Self-awareness is the ability to understand oneself and to consciously be aware of innate personality, emotions, behaviour in life. Self-awareness can help people to make important choices, maintain a positive attitude and have healthy habits. It is very important for the students who are in higher education level. On the basis of contemporary studies researcher has found a wide knowledge gap on self- awareness among the disabled students at higher education level in North 24 parganas. They also wanted to compare self awareness as core life skills between disabled and non-disabled students. Here the researcher indicated non-disables as the students without any so called reported physical or mental disability. Based on the findings of literature review and the broad research inquiry of existence of life skills among students with disability, the present researchers specified and stated the problem as “Promoting Mental Health through Self Awareness among the Disabled and Non- Disabled Students at Higher Education Level in North 24 parganas”. In the study researchers wanted to find out the difference of existing self-awareness skills of higher education student based on Presence of Disability. PURPOSE AND HYPOTHEIS Hypothesis is framed to fulfil the aim to find out the rate of prevalence of self awareness of the student in higher education (Disabled and Non-Disabled) on the basis of their awareness and to assess the rate of prevalence of  e-ISSN: 2582-5208 International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science Volume:03/Issue:01/January-2021 Impact Factor- 5.354 www.irjmets.com www.irjmets.com @International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering, Technology and Science [52] self-awareness of higher education students with respect to their disability. On the basis of this objectives researcher designed null hypothesis that there is no significance difference in self-awareness among the student of higher education in North 24 parganas. Null hypothesis also checks whether any significance difference in self-awareness with respect to main variable disability. II. METHODOLOGY STUDY DESIGN Cross sectional study was conducted on 70 students from North 24 parganas district comprised of 29 disable and 41 non-disabled students within age group 20-30 years. Researcher using random sampling technique and collected data with self-made Self Awareness Scale consists of 10 items. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20 POPULATION AND SAMPLE In the study sample were included 70 students at higher education level from north 24 parganas district researcher included both rural and urban students 29 were disabled students and 41 were non-disabled students. III. RESULTS The study conducted on 70 students of the age group of 20 to 30 years attending various institution in north 24 parganas district. The researcher statistically analysis the data and showed the result on the basis of overall self -awareness. On the basis of disability, as main variable of this research study. researcher includes 41students belong to non- disabled (28=high self-awareness, 13=low self-awareness) and 29 students belong to disabled (14=high self- awareness, 15=low self-awareness). Researcher used descriptive data analysis. HYPOTHESIS TESTING Researcher analysis the data through descriptive and inferential statistics to test the hypothesis and check whether any differences found in self-awareness among higher education student on the basis of their habitat and disability. Descriptive statistics 1. Self-awareness of the students at Higher Education Level on the basis of disability Variable. Group Statistics types of students N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean self-awareness score Disabled 41 20.36 2.401 .384 non-disabled 29 18.96 1.687 .232 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 disabled non-disabled disability variable high self awareness low self awareness  e-ISSN: 2582-5208 International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science Volume:03/Issue:01/January-2021 Impact Factor- 5.354 www.irjmets.com www.irjmets.com @International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering, Technology and Science [53] Researcher used descriptive statistics to calculate the mean value, standard deviation and the result transpired that the average self awareness score for disable students (20.36) is higher than the score (18.96) for non-disable student. This result shows that there are few differences in mean score of self awareness between the disabled and non- disabled students Inferential statistics 0H1: There is no significant mean difference in self awareness of the students at higher education level on the basis of their disability variable. T-test showing category of disability and non disabled wise difference in self awareness score. Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F Sig. t Df Sig. (2- tailed) Mean Differ ence Std. Error Differ ence 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper self awareness score Equal variances assumed 7.798 .006 3.2 79 68 .001 1.397 .426 .550 2.243 Equal variances not assumed 3.1 12 64. 411 .003 1.397 .449 .500 2.293 Researcher used Independent sample t-test comparing the mean scores of self awareness of disabled and non- disabled students to the mean scores [t (68) = 3.279, p< 0.05]. The mean of the disable students was significantly higher (m= 20.36, s.d=2.401) then the mean of non-disable students (m= 18.96, s.d= 1.687). Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and sample means being statistically significant.so, it can be concluded that there is significant mean difference in self awareness of the students at higher education level based on disability IV. CONCLUSION In this study, researcher revealed disabled student typically aware about their needs, problems, weakness and strength. In present study null hypothesis is rejected at 0.05 and 0.01 level and found significant different between disabled and non-disabled student in north 24 parganas district, which means disabled student quite aware about their self. V. REFERENCES [1] https://positivepsychology.com/self-awareness-matters-how-you-can-be-more-self-aware/ [2] https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000146963 [3] S.K. Mangal (2014): statistics In Psychology in Education, 2nd Edition: Phi Learning Private Limited, ISBN-978-81-203-2088-8. [4] Best, J.W., &Khan, J.V. (2008).Research I Education .Delhi: Pears [5] Hewitt,john p. (2009). oxford handbook of positive psychology, oxford university press. [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_health