PERCEIVED LONELINESS IN ADOLESCENTS POST COVID 19

Abstract

Adolescence is a unique and critical period in the human life-cycle. It is the transition period from childhood to adulthood between the ages of 10 to 19. Adolescence is a period of experiencing rapid physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development which affects how adolescents feel, make decisions, interact and think about themselves and about the world around them. Global covid 19 has disrupted the mental health of many adolescents developing negative emotions in them. Quarantine and social distancing during the covid-19 pandemic had increased levels of loneliness as well as social isolation, which had produced physical health along with mental health related consequences among adolescents. The purpose of the study aims to explore the prevalence of perceived loneliness in adolescents after Covid 19. The population for the study included students from various schools. The data was collected by a convenience sampling method using google forms with a mean age of 15.5 years. Out of the total 218 responses, avoiding the incomplete responses 204 responses (102 female and 102 male adolescents) were used for this study. The standardized questionnaire of perceived Loneliness scale was used for this study. The collected data were assessed using descriptive statistics and found that the Perceived loneliness mean of female adolescents was 114.40 and of male adolescents was 113.10, which indicates that female adolescents experience a higher range of perceived loneliness than male adolescents. The study concluded that female adolescents experienced an elevated range of perceived loneliness.