Self-concept and Mental Health of School Students under the Impact of Television Viewing

Television viewing is an apparent feature of almost all households, which is emphatically considered an important factor having subsequent ramifications on children’s health. The present study was conducted to investigate the impact of television viewing on the self concept and mental health of children (age 11-13yrs) 40 from Govt. and 40 from Private schools respectively. The total sample of 80 was collected from different Govt. and Private schools of Jammu city. Two scales were used for the study, namely, self concept scale by S.P. Ahluwalia and Mental health scale by Dr. Kamlesh Sharma. Data were analyzed using t-test. Results showed that there was a non significant difference in television viewing between the Govt. and Private school students as far as their self concept was concerned where as a significant difference was found in their mental health.


Introduction
The pioneering wave of television sets emerged in the American homes, in the mid twentieth century.And in the due course of time television viewing has become a favorite pastime in almost all countries of the world.No dubiousness surrounds the fact that television has remarkable influences on everybody especially children (Sirgan 2007).
In conjunction with family and school, the mass media, particularly television plays a crucial role in socializing children.Research shows that on an annual basis, children spend more time in front of the television than any other activity except for sleep.Exceedingly television also presents to children considerable information about how one should look, behave, succeed in life, be popular, and so forth.Prior to prevalence and pervasiveness of the mass media, children were socialized primarily through the family and the community (e.g., church, school etc).Today the basic structure of both the family and community has changed and no longer are they the only major influences that socialize children (Lears, M.O., 1992).Now with the multi-television sets, children may receive some socializing messages from a mass medium than parents, church, school, community.
As far as the enormous ways in which TV effects the various age groups is concerned, (Kenney, I., 2010) the American Academy of Pediatrics forbids the television viewing of children below age of two years, whereas with a plethora of quality choices available the parents do seemingly certify the positive aspects of television, though the canard "TV rots your brain" holds just the opposite and coincides with a study by Hancox, R.J., Milne, B.J., et al. (2005) who deliberated that the effects of excessive television viewing in children is associated with detrimental outcomes as far as the overall growh and development is concerned.The study concluded that the average time consumed in watching television throughout childhood and adolescent years was significantly associated with leaving school without qualification and had negative repercussions with regard to earning a university degree.
Television does enable children to sit together with the family, discuss the issues happening around the world thus encouraging them for beneficial discourses and interactions.The variety of educational channels like History Channel & the Discovery channel brings them closer to the vital pieces of trivia which are otherwise difficult to inculcate from other mundane sources.Television watching incorporates the fundamentals of English language in the children, equipping them with conversational rhythms of a language spoken globally.(Kenney, I., 2010) A study by Johnson, J. G., Cohen, P., et. al. (2002), found significant associations between the amount of time spent watching television during adolescence and early adulthood in a sample of 707 individuals, it also expressed the probability of subsequent aggressive acts against others.
Television renders some practically favorable effects, although the other facet might not be as positive (Kenney, I., 2010).A widely noted reality is that television fosters violence and aggression in the audience who are subject to such content on their screens, corroborating the truism was a study by Johnson, J. G., Cohen, P., et. al. (2002), that found significant associations between the amount of time spent watching television during adolescence and early a adulthood in a sample of 707 individuals, it also expressed the probability of subsequent aggressive acts against others.
The violent material especially appeals to the children and adolescents who get swayed by the repugnance and defiance glorified in it.Media flaunts with a lot of vitality, its convictions for the various brands encompassing a huge range of products like shampoos, deodorants, soaps, shaving blades, to name a few (Kenney, I., 2010).This infuses the younger crowd to indulge in absurd beliefs about beauty and attractiveness as they fall a prey to the advertisement band wagon.The preoccupation with such notions makes children vulnerable to the bad habits such as smoking and drinking.
A longitudinal study by Swing, E.L., Gentile, D.A. et. al (2010) proposed that television viewing was linked to serious attention problems in children and that greater attention problems could befall due to excessive TV watching and playing video games, so evidently television viewing effects almost whole of the human integration with specific reference to the self concept and mental health of the younger relatively gullible minds.And this is one of the discrete reason's as to why the present study was conducted.The major postulation enunciated by this study was that there will be no significant difference between Govt.and Private school students with regard to their self concept and mental health.
Self concept is a general term widely used to refer to how someone thinks about or perceives themselves.(Mcleod, S., 2008).It has significant conglomerations for both social psychology and humanism.Stroman, C.A. (2009) conducted a study to probe the association between amount of time spent watching television and perceptions of self concept among 102 black children.The major finding was that television viewing was related positively to the self concepts of girls and unrelated to boys self concepts.
Thus self concept is an amalgamation of belief systems and self perceptions about oneself.It thus functions as an important framework that dictates how the individual perceives information about himself/herself, comprising of motives, emotional states and self-evaluation abilities (Klein, S.B. Loftus, J., et. al. 1989).
Mental Health is a state of balanced personality and emotional equilibrium that allows a person to live happily and harmoniously with his fellowmen and without causing unhappiness to anyone but appropriately is not a static quality in anyone's private possession.It is not self sustaining.It can also be maintained by continuous exertion and with emotional togetherness and support of others.Thus, mental health means maturity, realism, altruism, sense of social responsibility, effective integration in work and in human relations, confidence and courage to face new experience and a common for common good, (Trivedi, C.R. 2007).

Objectives of the Study
1) To assess the self concept of govt.and private school students under the impact of television viewing.
2) To assess the mental health of govt.and private school students under the impact of television viewing.

Hypotheses of the Study
1) There will be no significant difference in the self concept of Govt.and private school students under the impact of television viewing.
2) There will be no significant difference in the mental health of Govt.and private school students under the impact of television viewing.

Experimental Design
A 2x2 factorial design consisting of two independent variables (Govt.and Private school students & television viewing) and two dependent variables (self concept & mental health) was used in the study.

Participants
A total number of 80 students participated in the study.Of the 80 students, 40 students were from Govt.schools (Ghas Mandi High School, Lakhdata Bazar) and 40 were from private schools (Jammu public school and Alexander Memorial School) and all students were between the age range of (11-13)years, in addition to this two hours of television viewing was fixed as a criterion for each student.

Materials
Self concept scale: To measure the self concept of the participants self concept scale by S. P. Ahluwalia (2001) was used, the self concept of the child was earlier measured by the piers and Harris children self concept scale (CSCS) Hindi adaptation (10).The CSCS consists of so items all with Yes and No responses.It is a verbal paper pencil test.The six subscales which are included in the self concept scale psychological world of childhood adolescence these names of these subscales are: Reliability: The CSCS is a widely used scale and last retest reliability is 0.88.
Validity: Concurrent validity range from 0.397 to 0.621.
Mental Health Scale: To measure the mental health of the participants, mental health scale by Dr. Kamlesh Sharma (1996) has been used.The final draft of the scale contains only 60 statements.
Scoring: Every statement has three alternative response Yes indefinite and No, the subject has to chose only one alternative responses.The scheme of scoring on positive statements 2 marks for "Yes", 1 mark for indefinite and "0" meet for No and for negative statements just reverse marking 2 marks for "no", 1 mark for indefinite and 0 mark for yes.
Reliability: The test retest (interval of 2 months) and split half reliability coefficient was found 0.86 and 0.88 respectively.
Validity: The validity coefficient was calculated by comparing the scale with mental health check list of Pramod Kumar and was found 0.79.

Procedure
The study included a sample size of 80, comprising of 40 govt.school students and 40 private school students.In the initial visit, they were informed about the study and after their consent, their socio-demographic details were collected which were followed by the administration of the self concept scale and mental health scale.They were assured of confidentiality.

Results and Discussion
After the collection of data and scoring, statistical analysis was done in order to test the formulated hypotheses of the study.Results have been described below: Dimension wise, in 1 st dimension Behavior the mean and S.D. of govt.school students was found to be 9.58, 2.11 respectively.The mean and standard deviation of private school students came out to be 10.67, 2.1 respectively T value is 2.32 which was significant at 0.05 and non-significant at 0.01 level.
In 2 nd dimension, Intellectual and school status, the mean and S.D. of Govt.school student was found to be 12.27 and 1.87 respectively, and for private school student the mean and S.D. was found to be 13.95 and 1.99 respectively.T value is 3.91 which is significant at both levels.
In 3 rd Dimension, Appearance and attributes, the mean and S.D for govt.school student 7.55 and 2.63 and that private school students is 9 and 2.96 respectively.T value is 0.72 which is non significant at both levels.
In 4 th Dimension, Anxiety, the mean and S.D. of govt.school students is 5.75 and 1.89 whereas that of private school students it is 7.07 and 2.44 respectively.T value is 2.44 which is significant at 0.05 level and non significant at 0.01 level.
In 5 th Dimension, popularity the mean and S.D. of govt.school students is 7.6 and 1.26 and that private school students it is 8.05 and 1.99 respectively.T-value is 1.25 which is non-significant at both levels.
In 6 th Dimension, Happiness and satisfaction, the mean and S.D for govt.school students is 6.75 and 1.09 and that of private school students it is 7.57 and 1.14 respectively.T value is 3.42 which is significant at both levels the first objective was to assess the self concept.
Among govt.and private school student the mean and S.D. of govt.school students was found to be 49.5 and 18.23 respectively.The mean standard deviation of private school students came out to be 56.32 8.42 respectively.T value which was found to be 2.15 against the df = 78 (N+N 2 -2=40+40-2=78) was higher than the table value at 0.05 level = 1.99 lower and at 0.01 level = 2.64.Thus it is significant at 0.05 level and non significant at 0.01 level.The second hypothesis was to assess the mental health among govt and private school student the mean and standard deviation of the Govt.school student regarding mental health came out to be 64.35 and 5.66 respectively.The mean and S.D of private school student regarding mental health came out to be 74.8 and 11.77 respectively.T value which came out to be 5.07 against df = 78 (N 1 +N 2 -2=40+40-2=78) was higher than the table value at 0.05 level = 1.99 and at 0.01 level = 2.64.Thus, it is significant at both levels.Hence, for self concept, the results are non significant, the hypothesis is accepted, this means that there is no significant difference between self concept of govt and private school student under the impact of viewing.
And for mental health, the results are significant, the null hypothesis is rejected, that means that there is difference between of govt.and private school students under the impact of television viewing.

Conclusion
The current study found that there was a non significant difference between the self concept of govt.and private One score is to be awarded to each statement either for Yes or No.

Table 1 .
The dimension wise mean, S.D, T-value and level of significance among govt.and private school students regarding their self concept

Table 2 .
The mean, S.D. t-value and level of significance among govt and private school students regarding their self concept

Table 3 .
The mean, S.D. t value and level of significant among govt.and private school students regarding their mental health Thus the above results show that govt.school students have low level of self concept and mental health in comparison to private school students.Who have high levels regarding both, i.e., self concept and mental health.