In this study, stress-related issues unique to institutionalised adolescent orphans were identified, their level of stress was evaluated, and a case was made for counselling as the best intervention strategy. The goals were to quantify and assess stress levels, examine stressors and their causes, comprehend counselling and its scientific method, and defend counselling as an evidence-based intervention. The Stress Scale Manual, created by Dr. Prerna Puri, Dr. Tejinder Kaur, and Prof. Manju Mehta in 2001 to measure stress levels, was used in the study as part of a descriptive research approach to gather sociodemographic data. A statistical analysis was done to look at the frequency and seriousness of stressors and associated problems. Based on the results, evidence-based counselling strategies were suggested to address the identified stress-related issues among the targeted group. In Tiruchirappalli District, 11 government-sponsored orphanages housed 1,021 adolescent orphans between the ages of 13 and 17. The participants were chosen from a total of 64 orphanages in the district using a multistage random sampling method. Eleven government-sponsored orphanages were chosen using simple random sampling. Two orphanages for boys, two for girls, and two for mixed-gender children were chosen at random from among these. Data were gathered from all 360 participants using a census method because there were few adolescent orphans in the defined age range. The Stress Scale Manual, which consists of 34 items scored on a four-point scale, was used to collect the data. The responses of each participant were graded using the established norms for the scale. The split-half method was used to calculate the tool's reliability, and the result was a coefficient of 0.90. After the samples were identified, data were collected, cleaned up, and then analysed with the aid of SPSS software. The size of the effects of stress was calculated statistically. The appropriate counselling strategies were then distilled and presented to support counselling as an efficient intervention for addressing stress-related issues after relevant literature was reviewed to identify them. The distribution of different stress dimensions among the adolescent orphans was revealed by the study's findings. The majority of respondents (44.7%) and career & academic stress (40.8%) both reported medium levels of overall stress. While irritability showed a fairly evenly distributed distribution among the respondents, stress-proneness was found to be at a medium level for 42.8% of respondents. A significant portion of respondents (38.1%) demonstrated a high level of stress management skill deficiency, while the majority of respondents (46.4%) had a medium level of easy-going personality. Meaningless thoughts and a bad mood were reported at medium and low levels, respectively. Physical signs of stress were moderately common (47.8%), and respondents' anxious behaviour was moderately common (51.1%). Overall stress was reported at medium levels by a significant percentage of respondents (46.4%). These results shed light on the prevalence and distribution of stress-related dimensions in the population under study, highlighting areas that call for targeted interventions and counselling strategies to deal with particular stress-related problems.

Adolescents, Orphans, Stress, Counselling, Interventional strategies