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Objective: To determine the predictive relation of demographic variables with relational aggression. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat Pakistan, from Aug 2017 to Jan 2018. Methodology: A total of 612 adolescent students were selected with age 12-19 years from diverse academic institutes of Gujrat city. Urdu version of diverse adolescent relational aggression scale was used to measure relational aggression. Neural network analysis was carried out by using SPSS-21. Result: The findings of this study revealed significant predictive relation of demographic variables (gender, birth order, family system, number of siblings and age) with relational aggression. The most important predictor of relational aggression in teenagers was birth order 0.249 (100%), age 0.246 (98.9%) siblings 0.242 (86.3%), family system 0.166 (66.8%) and gender 123 (49.6) respectively. Conclusion: Demographic variables are the significant predictor of relational aggression. By managing the effects of these variables, adverse behavior of relational aggression can be controlled in adolescent students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Development of emotional distress scale for adolescents in Urdu language. Study Design: Cross sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, from Feb to Nov 2020. Methodology: Scale was based on Beck Cognitive Theory with 3 main factors of Depression, Anxiety and stress and 9 sub factors of it. Initial item pool was developed of 180 items with the help of DSM-5, four focus group and literature review was carried out. One hundred and seventy four out of 180 items were selected after expert evaluation. 162 items were retained after pilot study. Moreover data was collected by using self-reported questionnaire on 900 adolescents from the community of district Gujrat and district Sargodha. For the analysis of data reliability, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used. Results: After final administration of 162 items 49 items were retained. The final administration of 49 items with written informed consent was handed over to 900 participants. The model fit showed a p-value of 0.000 that established the structure validity and significance of the items to its subscales. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy (KMO) Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Pallant showed the acceptable value above 0.6 that showed the sampling adequacy of Emotional Distress Scale. After all analysis 49 items were selected. Conclusion: Emotional distress scale is reliable indigenous scale for measuring emotional distress of adolescents with 3 main and 9 sub factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop a scale and establish psychometric properties to measure Adverse Childhood Experiences of Adolescents in Urdu language. Study Design: Cross sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, from Dec 2019 to Oct 2020. Methodology: After the approval of proposal initial item pool of 145 items was generated with the help of DSM-5, extensive literature review and focus group interviews (Girls=25, Boys=25). Expert evaluation shortens it into 137 items whereas pilot study retained 132 items for final administration. Data was obtained from 1331 adolescents with age range of 12-19 from educational institutions and community in district Gujrat. Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and reliability analysis were carried out to analyze the data. Results: Exploratory factor analysis explored 38 reliable items for Adverse Childhood Experiences scale under four sub factors; Sexual Abuse, Neglect, Physical Abuse, and Psychological Abuse whereas 12 items were confirmed for final scale through model fit (p-value=0.000, CFI=0.968, GFI=0.975, AGFI=0.959, RMSEA=0.049) of Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Conclusion: A scale to estimate Adverse Childhood Experiences of adolescents in Urdu language is competently developed and established with 12 questions and four sub-scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To construct a scale and psychometric properties for the assessment of oppositional defiant behaviors of adolescents in Urdu language. Study Design: Cross sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, from Feb 2019 to Oct 2019. Methodology: The initial item pool of 48 items was generated with the help of DSM 5 description of oppositional defiant behaviors, literature review and three focus groups with target population. Among the 47 expert evaluated items after pilot studys 45 items were retained which included the three dimensions of oppositional defiant behaviors including irritable mood, argumentative behaviors and vindictiveness. Furthermore, in the final administration of this scales data were collected from 500 adolescents from the educational institutions and community of Gujrat using self-reported questionnaire. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and reliability analysis were implied for data scrutiny. Results: The final administration of 45 items was handed over to 500 participants. The model fit showed a p-value of .000 that established the structure validity and significance of the items to its subscales. At the final stage among the 45 items 12 were reliable for further use. Conclusion: A scale to gauge oppositional defiant behaviors of adolescents in Urdu language is competently established with 12 questions and three sub-scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the prevalence of "social anxiety" among adolescent student of Pakistani students. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, from 10th Oct 2017 to 30th Mar 2018. Methodology: The 716 adolescent students (344 male & 372 females) were assessed through Pakistani version of the scale initially developed by La Greca and Lopez in 1989 to measure social anxiety titled "Social Anxiety Scale - Adolescents". Results: There was high prevalence of anxiety in adolescents as 22.5% of sample scored high on the SAS-A. No marked gender differences were observed on variable of interest. However, when analyzed for morbidity of social anxiety across early, middle and late adolescent groups it was observed that relatively less number of students in late adolescents scored high as 21.16% on social anxiety as compared to early 21.43% and middle adolescents 25.5%. Among high scorers in middle adolescents there was the greater number of boys as 59% reflecting middle adolescents as the most critical times for male adolescents. Conclusion: Social anxiety was found a most prevalent disorder in adolescents and morbidity of social anxiety alarmingly increase in youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To study the role of mothers' expressed emotions in psychopathology and social-emotional competence in adolescents. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat Pakistan, from Jul 2020 to Aug 2021 Methodology: Five hundred mothers and their five hundred adolescents were approached to measure the role of mothers' expressed emotions in psychopathology and social-emotional competence in adolescents. For this purpose, parental Expressed Emotions Scale-1 was used, and to assess the psychopathology and social-emotional competence in adolescents, Social Anxiety Scale-2 and Social-Emotional Competence Scale-3 were used. Results: Artificial neural network (ANN) analysis was used to identify the mothers' expressed emotions as predictors of social anxiety and social-emotional competence in adolescents. Results showed incorrect predictions was for training data (60%) and for testing data (28%), which signify the current results that around 72% of right decision about mothers' expressed emotions as a predictor of social anxiety and social-emotional competence in adolescents. Conclusion: In the teenage period, youth face an increasing number of psychological, social, and developmental challenges. Mothers are the first teachers of their children. When they fail to support them and display ways of negatively expressing emotions, it leads to overall mental health issues, in which social anxiety is the most common challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]