Association Between Anticipatory Thinking and Adolescent Depression, Anxiety and Stress
Abstract
This is a quantitative study examining the association between secondary school students’ anticipatory thinking and their mental health status. The increasing number of mental health cases such as depression, anxiety and stress among these vulnerable groups has demonstrated that mental health literacy intervention to promote better mental health outcome, remain inadequate to cope with the challenges. To address the issue, 320 secondary school students were randomly selected among form four students of rural and urban areas attending public schools across several states of Peninsular Malaysia to participate in the study. Self-administered Anticipatory Thinking Skill Scales (ATSS) and Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21) were employed to measure participants’ anticipatory thinking skill and their mental health status. The findings revealed that student participants reported moderate levels of both anticipatory thinking skills and mental health symptoms. This suggests that the students generally possess a functional capacity for engaging in future-oriented cognitive processes. This inverse relationship strongly implies that adolescents with higher proficiency in these cognitive skills are likely to experience better mental well-being.
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References
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