Efficacy of Stress Inoculation Training SIT in improving the overall wellbeing of School students

Abstract

The study was carried out with the major objective of namely design and implement SIT newlinespecific to the current and future stressors of the 9th grade students, which in turn would facilitate newlineenhanced resistance to stress in terms of reduced stress level, enhanced physical and mental health and newlinedesired behavioural change, improved resilience, repertoires of coping skills and academic newlineperformance. A combination of survey research and field experiment research was undertaken in newlineCoimbatore city. Initial survey comprised of 528 (Government N1 173 Private N2 355) high school newlinestudents, represented by three government and three private schools. Out of these six schools two newlineschools (one government and one private) were selected for the experiment and one section of each of newlinethe 9th class comprised the experimental group (Government n1, - 41 Private n2 40) of students. The newlineremaining students of other section constituted the control group. Tools were administered for the newlinepopulation sample and re-administered to both the experimental and the control group. The key newlinefindings are: Prior SIT - Girls of government schools are more stressed than boys whereas girls of newlineprivate school are less stressed, when put together the stress level of boys were significantly higher newlinethan their counterparts, students enrolled in government school were comparatively more stressed than newlinetheir private counterparts. Post SIT - the overall percentage of the respondents declined in the high newlinelevel category of stress indicators and enormously augmented in the low level category. Retention newlinepotential of SIT - a significant increase in mean score of the experimental group from pre to post SIT newlinewas observed in resilience, stress coping repertoires and academic performance of the student newlinerespondents. The findings of the present study enlighten the educators, researchers and policy makers newlinethat the stress level of the high school students was startling that necessitates immediate consideration.