Emotional Stability: A Study of Contributory Factors

In this conceptual paper, an effort has been made to find out the factors responsible for emotional stability of the students who are in their late adolescence (18-21 years). Emotional stability is an important personality trait of an individual and also an essential part of mental health. Emotional stability refers to a person’s ability to stay stable and balanced. In recent times the COVID-19 pandemic hits the whole world and people are going through a myriad of psychological problems. The mental health of the adolescents is affected a lot and they are unable to stay emotionally stable. The ‘New Normal’ added more challenges in their life in the form of online classes, less career opportunities, problems in adjusting to the current lifestyle, financial constraints and fear to virus disease (COVID-19), these challenges affected emotional stability. Based on literature review, few factors responsible for emotional stability have emerged in normal time as well as in the pandemic time. In addition, focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted with behavioral scientists to validate the contributory factors. The important factors which have emerged as contributing to emotional stability are: gender, caste, family structure, age, working status of mother, socioeconomic status, emotional maturity, parent child relationship, remote online classes, fear of COVID-19, and uncertainty about future perspective of academics and career. Since the research is based on extensive review of literature, further it can be extended by collecting data through questionnaire and analyzing with the help of statistical tools. The findings will contribute towards developing a model of emotional stability for students.