Parental involvement and mental well-being of Indian adolescents

This study examined the association between parental involvement and mental well-being among the 6721 school-going adolescents aged 13 to 15 years who participated in India’s nationally-representative Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) in 2007. Parental involvement (homework checking, parental understanding of their children’s problems, and parental knowledge of their children’s free-time activities) was reported by students to decrease with age, while poor mental health (loneliness, insomnia due to anxiety, and sadness and hopelessness) increased with age. Age adjusted Logistic regression models showed that high levels of reported parental involvement were significantly associated with a decreased likelihood of poor mental health.