Background & objectives: Hypertension, traditionally a significant health issue among adults, is now increasingly being observed in the paediatric population posing long-term cardiovascular risks. This study evaluated a school-based hypertension education intervention for adolescents and its impact on their hypertensive family members. Objectives included assessing adolescents' knowledge retention, knowledge transfer to adults, and the effects of child-led monitoring on adult compliance. Methods: The study was conducted in two phases. In Phase 1, the study involved adolescents from classes 6-10 (n=423). Phase 1 assessed hypertension knowledge changes post-intervention from baseline scores across 6 interval points through 91 days using hypertension knowledge test (HKT). In Phase 2, adolescents and their hypertensive family members (n=181) were recruited in pairs. Changes in HKT, hypertension compliance (hypertension compliance scale: HyCompS), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were analysed pre-and post-intervention using paired t-tests. Adolescents tracked adult adherence via daily monitoring diaries, analysed descriptively. Results: In Phase 1, adolescents showed significant and sustained improvements in hypertension knowledge despite minor dips on the 35th and 63rd days. In Phase 2, adults’ knowledge improved significantly in overall and general awareness domains. Compliance increased, particularly for medication and lifestyle monitoring, with significant reduction in MAP. Children recorded high monitoring adherence—medication (77.6%), exercise (72%), and diet (66%). Interpretation & conclusions: Adolescents can effectively serve as health advocates, promoting hypertension awareness and compliance within families. Structured school interventions may improve both adolescent and adult health outcomes. Longitudinal studies with larger samples are recommended.

Objectives: Adolescence is a critical period for psychosocial development, often marked by elevated stress levels. The present study examines the role of psychosocial factors as predictors of adolescent stress, with a focus on personality traits, social support, and family health. Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 1,104 school-going adolescents from Telangana, India were analysed. Using the Adolescence Stress Scale and various psychosocial scales, hierarchical multiple regression and path analysis were employed to assess direct and indirect effects of psychosocial variables on stress levels. Results: Key predictors of stress included ill-health experiences, conscientiousness, emotional instability, and psychosocial support. Together, these factors explained 6% of the variance in stress. Serial mediation analysis revealed significant indirect effects, where family health and emotional efficacy acted as mediators between psychosocial factors and stress. Emotional instability and frustrative non-reward responsiveness were the strongest predictors of stress. Conclusions: Psychosocial factors play a significant but modest role in adolescent stress, highlighting the need for further research into additional contributors. Interventions targeting family health and emotional regulation may alleviate stress among adolescents.

Background: This study aimed to establish the effectiveness of a hypertension knowledge education intervention among Indian adolescents to foster lifestyle changes aimed at preventing hypertension. Methods: The Hypertension Knowledge Test (HKT) was used to assess changes in knowledge using a repeated-measures one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The Healthy Lifestyle Practice Scale for Children and Adolescents (HELIPSCA) indexed healthy lifestyle practices, with paired t-tests used to compare pre- and post-intervention scores. A two-way mixed ANOVA examined changes in healthy lifestyle practices among adolescents divided in terms of early and late stage of development. Results: Significant mean differences were observed in overall hypertension knowledge across four domains: general awareness, lifestyle factors, causes and care, and medication management and across time periods. There was a significant improvement in HELIPSCA scores post-intervention, particularly among early adolescents. Conclusion: The hypertension knowledge intervention examined in this study was effective in establishing a cognitive base among school children, with knowledge retention observed for 3 months. Moreover, this knowledge increase was associated with a parallel change in improved healthy lifestyle practices, notably among early adolescents. These findings underscore the importance of providing school-based education programmes early in adolescence to promote awareness of chronic illnesses and encourage healthy lifestyle choices.

Background/Aim: The objective of the paper was to develop a comprehensive “Adolescence Stress Scale” and to examine different psychometric issues in the development, initial validation, and standardization of this scale. Method: Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the data procured from a sample of 634 (11–18 years) school-going adolescents in India. Results: An exploratory analysis provided a 10 factor structure, namely, major loss induced stress, enforcement or conflict induced stress, phobic stress, interpersonal conflict induced stress, punishment induced stress, illness and injury induced stress, performance stress, imposition induced stress, insecurity induced stress, unhealthy environment induced stress. The 10 oblique factor solutions are found to be interrelated and interdependent with good indices of internal consistency, and content validity. Conclusions: This scale development is a novel and powerful measure that taps onto various aspects of stress experienced by school-going adolescents. The scale can facilitate researchers, clinicians, and teachers to identify and quantify the significant sources of stress in adolescents in school, or clinic settings.

Background: The alarming rise in prevalence of hypertension warrants psychosocial methods supplementing pharmacotherapy for better management and prevention of cardiac emergencies. The objective of the study was to assess the differential impact of the form and frequency of knowledge intervention on management of primary hypertension. Materials and method: The study was conducted on 256 hypertensive patients recruited through purposive sampling at health centers in Hyderabad, India. Pretest post-test control group quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. There were two forms of the knowledge intervention, namely ‘Direct Interaction’ and ‘Audio-Visual’. Each form was presented in two frequencies namely ‘single exposure’ and ‘double exposure’. The four groups were labelled as Direct Intervention Single (DIS), Direct Intervention Double (DID), Audio-Visual Single (AVS) and Audio-Visual Double (AVD). Adherence and management of hypertension were assessed at baseline and six weeks post experiment. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was applied using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20. Results: ANCOVA followed by Bonferroni Multiple Group Comparison Test revealed significant differences between the four intervention groups and control group on adherence (p<.001). In case of hypertension management significant differences were observed between Control group and DIS, DID (p <.001), Control and AVS (p <.01). Control group did not differ from AVD. Conclusion: There was a positive impact of Knowledge Intervention on adherence and management of hypertension. Double exposure in audio visual form was counterproductive in hypertension management.

The objectives of this study are to develop a self-report scale to measure social support, evaluate its core structure and study various psychometric properties in the development of this scale. The entire process of developing and validating the scale is described in three phases. These comprise item writing and content validation in Phase I, validity testing in Phase II and reliability testing in Phase III. A total of 1,414 participants were included in the study. An exploratory factor analysis was run using IBM SPSS 23. Psychometric properties of the Psycho-social Support Scale were evaluated by Cronbach's alpha index of internal reliability. The implications of the scale are discussed.

Adolescence is a volatile and fragile transitional period of life marked with experiences that threat well-being. The objectives of the study were devised to investigate the relationship between coping competence, mindfulness, and well-being and to examine the role of coping competence and mindfulness on well-being. The study followed a correlational design. A total sample of 221 adolescents (111 boys and 110 girls; age range 14–19 years) were recruited from schools and colleges through purposive sampling and were administered the following scales: cognitive and affective mindfulness scale-revised, the coping competence questionnaire, and WHO Well-Being Index 5. The obtained quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t test, Pearson’s correlation and standard multiple regression. A significant positive relationship between all the three variables, viz. coping competence, mindfulness and well-being was found. Multiple regression analyses indicated that both the variables-coping competence and mindfulness (together as a model) predicted well-being but did not make significant individual contributions in predicting well-being. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

The potential for children to be used as agents of change in health research and practice is being increasingly valued. To reach this objective, it is foremost to gauge children’s perceptions about health, based on which future pathways to health promotion programs may be built which are easily comprehensible to children. Therefore, this study was conceptualised to understand the way school children perceive health and track the changes in their comprehension of health. Basing on a cross-sectional design, a sample of 667 children belonging to Class 6 to 10 from three different Indian schools were selected. These children having similar socioeconomic status and education curricula were asked to respond to an open-ended question—What do you understand by ‘being healthy’? The obtained qualitative data were analysed by means of content analysis to explore categories or themes of responses. Divergence of conceptualisation was measured through calculation of entropy. The three emerged major themes—Meaning of health, Ways to be healthy, and Indices of health— represented children’s health perceptions. The entropy values revealed a steep rise in the divergence in perceptions of health of Class 10 children compared to plateau in perceptions of children of lower classes. Implication and limitations of this study were also discussed.