Self-esteem, Emotional Problems, Family Relationships and School Environment between Underachievers and Achievers of Indian Rural High School Students

Page: 01-10
Cindhu Menaka (Department of Psychology, University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu)

Academic achievement serves as an indicator of student’s future and their educational status in society. Underachievement is a major concern for parents and teachers in the intensely competitive world. It occurs due to many factors such as individual, personal, family, school, or socio-economic background. Inefficient teaching and poor school structure in rural places are hardly ever mentioned by parents and/or teachers, and they play a significant role in demotivating students. It is imperative to understand and evaluate the essence of the problem faced by the underachievers, irrespective of the implementation of favourable schemes and educational rules, chiefly related to rural students. Thus, the present study aims at a new perspective, with an earnest attempt to throw light on the most challenging problems faced in the present educational system. For this purpose, 528 rural low socio-economic status students were selected for an IQ screening test, and among them, 292 students (159 achieving students & 133 underachieving students) were selected as final samples for data collection, by using the Judgmental sampling technique. Discriminant functional analysis are used for finding out the predictive factor responsible for underachievement. It was concluded that low self-esteem is one of the vital determinants of underachievement.