While developmental studies predominantly investigated adolescents' mental illness and psychosocial maladjustment, the present research focused on positive mental health of Indian adolescents within the Mental Health Continuum model. Aims were to estimate their prevalence of mental health and to examine its associations with mental distress and psychosocial functioning, taking into account age and gender. A group of 539 students (age 13e18; 43.2% girls) in the National Capital Territory of Delhi completed Mental Health Continuum Short Form, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales-21, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Findings showed that 46.4% participants were flourishing, 51.2% were moderately mentally healthy, and only 2.4% were languishing. A higher number of girls and younger adolescents were flourishing compared to boys and older adolescents. Moreover, flourishing youths reported lower prevalence of depression and adjustment difficulties, and more prosocial behavior. Findings support the need to expand current knowledge on positive mental health for well-being promotion in adolescence.

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Background:Lifetime prevalence of depression and anxiety increases from 1% of the population under age 12 years to ~17%-25% of the population by the end of adolescence. The greatest increase in new cases occurs between 15-18 years. Indian empirical studies have reported a prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in the range between 14.4% and 31.7%; thus, affecting psychosocial functioning.Aims:The objectives of the current study were to (i) examine the psychometric properties of the DASS and SDQ on Indian adolescents, (ii) explore the role of socio- demographic variablesand (iii) examine if there was any difference between school going and school dropouts.Methodology:Data from 1812 students, aged 12-19 years was collected with mean age = 15.67 years (SD =1.41 years). The participants were administered a booklet containing demographic questionnaire and psychometric scales such as DASS-21 (Henry & Crawford, 2005; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1999) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997).Statistical Analysis:Structure validation, correlational analysis and multivariate analysis.Results and Conclusions:The results of validation indicated that English and Hindi version of 3 factor model of DASS and 2 factor model of SDQ was an acceptable model fit. It was noted that early adolescents were high on prosocial behaviour whereas late adolescents were high on difficulties score. Females were higher than males on prosocial behaviour. Adolescents residing in rural areas differed from their urban counterparts on prosocial behaviour and anxiety. Government school going adolescents differed from private school going adolescents on prosocial behaviour, stress and anxiety. Negative perception of relationship with family affected adolescents difficulties score, depression and stress. Similarly, negative perception of self-concept leads to higher difficulties score and lower prosocial behaviour score. The school going adolescents differed from non-school going adolescents on stress, depression and anxiety.

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