Comparison of Self-Strength, Seeking Help and Happiness between Pakistani and Chinese Adolescents: A Positive Psychology Inquiry

Adolescents’emotions and preferences are influenced by their childhood experiences.In today’s world,there is a pervasive eagerness for happiness.Happiness has been linked to feelings of self-strength,seeking help,and psy-chological health.The current quantitative research was designed with a positive psychological perspective to compare Pakistani and Chines adolescents’self-strength,seeking help,and happiness.The research design of the study was causal-comparative.The study population consisted of 400 Pakistani and 409 Chinese adolescents studying in the elementary grades of both countries.The sample was selected by using a simple random sampling technique.It consisted of 413 boys(51%)and 396 girls(49%),319(39)of them were from the age group of 13–14 years,386(48%)of them were from the age group of 15–16 years,and 104(12.9%)were from the age group of 17–18 years.Three different scales were developed to collect study data.Independent sample t-test and simple linear regression were used to test study hypotheses.The analysis revealed that Pakistani adolescents have signifi-cantly higher self-strength,seeking help and happiness than their counterparts.It was also found that adolescents’self-strength and seeking help significant affect their happiness.Based on thefindings,it was suggested to inves-tigate the factors contributing to the improved self-strength,seeking help,and happiness of Pakistani adolescents.It was also recommended to investigate the mediating effect of adolescents’self-strength on the relationship between their happiness and seeking help.

Socio-cultural features and help-seeking preferences for leprosy and tuberculosis: a cultural epidemiological study in a tribal district of Maharashtra, India

Background:India is a major contributor to the global burden of leprosy and tuberculosis(TB),which adversely affects the poorest tribal communities.Despite prioritisation by disease control programmes,programme performance for leprosy and TB in tribal communities continues to be a challenge.In addition to access to services and infrastructural limitations,socio-cultural concepts of illness causation and related help seeking(HS)rooted in distinct features of tribal culture need to be addressed to improve programme outcomes.Methods:A cultural epidemiological survey of leprosy and TB patients was carried out using a locally adapted,semi-structured explanatory model interviews.A total of 100 leprosy and 50 TB patients registered for treatment at government health facilities were selected randomly from tribal dominant blocks of the Thane district,Maharashtra state.The perceived causes(PCs)of leprosy and TB in patients were compared based on prominence categories.The relationship between PCs as predictors,and disease conditions and HS preferences as outcome variables were assessed using multivariate logistic regression.Results:In the multivariate logistic regression model with disease conditions as outcome variables,TB patients were significantly more likely to report PCs in the categories of ingestion;health,illness and injury;and traditional,cultural and supernatural.Tuberculosis patients more frequently first sought help from private facilities as compared to leprosy patients who preferred government health facilities.In a combined analysis of leprosy and TB patients employing multivariate logistic regression,it was found that patients who reported PCs in the environmental and contact-related categories were more likely to visit traditional rather than non-traditional practitioners.In another multivariate combined model,it was found that patients who reported PCs in the traditional,cultural and supernatural category were significantly more likely to visit private rather than public health facilities.Conclusion:Cultural concepts about illness causation and associated HS behaviours should be considered as priorities for action,which in turn would provide the necessary impetus to ensure that tribal patients seek help in a timely and appropriate manner,and could facilitate improvement in programme performance in general.