Family Income, Parental Education and Media Exposure as Predictors of Youth Problems

The present study was conducted with 16-18 years old adolescent boys and girls from Hisar city and two villages of Hisar district. These adolescents were selected from randomly selected four government senior secondary schools. Total sample constituted of 240 adolescents, 120 from rural area and 120 from urban area. These 240 adolescents included 120 boys and 120 girls. Youth Problem Inventory (YPI) developed and standardized by Verma (2004) was used to assess the youth problems among adolescents. Percentages and step-wise regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Majority of adolescents' fathers had education up to senior secondary level, while majority of mothers had education up to middle school level. Majority of adolescents belonged to lower income group followed by middle and high income groups. Adolescents were personally interviewed about their psycho-social problems. Results revealed that majority of adolescents from total sample experienced average level of family, school, social, personal and overall problems. Step-wise linear regression revealed that media exposure, family income and paternal education were significant predictors of youth problems.