Comprehending Mental Health in Indonesian’s Adolescents through Mental, Emotional, and Social Well-Being

ABSTRACT

Many problems occur at the age of adolescence, especially mental health disorders. Teens experiencing life changes could be at risk for mental health disorders. Adolescents with flourishing/good mental health can become adults who are optimistic, independent, creative, and able to adequately contribute to their surroundings by optimally using their capacities. This study aims to describe an overview of the psychological, emotional, and social well-being of adolescents; thus, it can be used to create a national picture of adolescents’ mental health in Indonesia. This is a descriptive study with a cross-sectional design. The study sample included 972 adolescents in grades 7 and 8 in public and private junior high schools in Depok, Jakarta, Tangerang, and Denpasar who were selected by stratified random sampling. Adolescents possess a high degree of psychological, emotional, and social well-being, and 46.3% of the adolescents were discovered to have flourishing mental health while the others had moderate and languishing/weak mental health. It is necessary to maintain and enhance the involvement of adolescents’ support systems to maintain their mental health. Moreover, adolescents should explore their potential in order to learn adaptive coping mechanisms to help them solve problems appropriately.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• adolescent
• psychological well-being
• emotional well-being
• social well-being

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to gratitude to Directorate of Research and Community Engagement, Universitas Indonesia for Hibah Publikasi Internasional Terindeks untuk Tugas Akhir (PITTA) grant 2018. We also would like to thank for schools, teachers for their assistance in this study, and also students for their participants in this research. Thank you also for Indah Mei for helping translate this manuscript.

Declaration of interest statement

The researcher has no conflicts of interest with any one.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Directorate of Research and Community Engagement Universitas Indonesia (1835/UN2.R3.1/HKP.05.00/2018).