Mental Health Vulnerability

Vulnerability and Protective Factors Impacting on Mental Health Russellos (2009) has discussed vulnerability and protective factors of mental health. Individual aspects to any given life events will certainly vary between people according to their past experiences, so people experiencing the same incident will most likely have quite different reactions. Definite factors, however, may increase susceptibility to life events, whereas other factors may offer protection against such events. Life events such as marriage, child birth, divorce, death and similar essential occasions, are times of alteration and may sudden emotional difficulties or disorders. The environment in which people live or work may have an effect on their mental

The result exposed that teenagers score higher on mental health, scored higher on optimism and self esteem, and lower on depression, anxiety and stress. Mental health was negatively correlated with optimism and self esteem The relationship between mental health, mental illness and different skills, attributes or behavior depends to some point on which aspect of mental health and well being is being measured and which scales are used. Therefore, the facts must be analyzed with caution, although for positive mental health, there tend to be a reasonably good correlation between different aspects of positive mental health e. g. life satisfaction, quality of life, optimism, happiness, psychological well being and positive affect (Blanch flower and Oswald, as cited in Friedli, Oliver, Tidyman, and Ward, 2007). Harwich (1993) in a longitudinal study on psychological well being found that living in present, experiencing life as meaningful optimism, individuality, adaptability, close relationship, continued growth and spirituality contributed to individual’s psychological wellbeing and all these variables are indices of mental health (As cited in Ogunyemi, &Mobekoje,

Numerous works has been done to find the association between early parental loss and mental illness, the investigators reported that there is a positive relationship between childhood loss and adult life mental illness. Parental Death may be specific risk factor for depressive and anxiety disorders. (Audrey R. Tyrka, Lauren Wier, Lawrence H. Price, Nicole S. Ross & Linda L. Carpenter, 2013). Nickerson and her colleagues (2011) analyzed the data from 2,823 adults who experienced the death of a parent during childhood. The used the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview to assess psychological impairment, parental care and other factors that could contribute to difficulties later in life. They found that younger a child was at the time of loss, the more likely they were to develop mental health problems including depression, anxiety, mood and substance abuse issues. The study also revealed that family conditions after the death played a significant role. Children living in single-parent and/or low-income households are more likely to exhibit problem behaviors and depressive symptoms and are less likely to display social competence than are children who grow up in more fortunate circumstances (Moore, et al.,