A Comparative Study of Abandoned and Orphan Adolescents on Traumatic Events, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Resilience

Abstract

A person has many relationships over the course of their life span, of which the most important is the relationship between a parent and a child. But not every child gets the opportunity to learn and grow under the shade of their parents. Some get separated by their parents at an early stage; either become an orphan or abandoned. And this detriment leaves great impression on the children which can lead to various physiological and psychological changes. These changes may even take the shape of chronic disorders which needs to be studied. As every individual is unique in themselves, so the strategies one applies to fight with these traumas may be different in each individual as per the rate of severity of the traumas. Therefore, the aim of this study is to find out the incidence of traumatic events, post- traumatic stress disorder symptoms and resilience among abandoned and orphan adolescents residing in different orphanages of Amritsar and Patiala city of Punjab state. A purposive research design methodology was adopted to achieve the set goals of this study. Five hypotheses were tested in this study. Sample size of 100 participants was collected with the age range of about 11-16 years. Sample consists of boys and girls from different orphanages of Amritsar and Patiala city. A self- administered structured questionnaire was used to testify the socio-demographic characteristics. Two standardized tests relating traumatic events, PTSD symptoms and the resilience scale were also used. Statistical analysis such as; Mean, standard deviation, 2*2 Factorial Anova and regression co-efficient was used to compute the results set at significant p<0.001 level. Findings showed that abandoned boys and girls are higher on Traumatic events as compared to orphan boys and girls. The number of Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms of abandoned girls and orphan boys were high. Resilience was found more in abandoned and orphan boys as compared to abandoned and orphan girls. Calculated results could be beneficial for further planning intervention techniques to help these adolescents residing in orphanages. Care-takers at the orphan homes should be trained to recognize the traumatic symptoms among these adolescents, so that they could be recommended for intervention.

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