A comparative study of adolescent girls living in orphanages and with families: School adjustment

Pages: 81-85
Hardeep Kaur and Arashmeet Chawla (Department of Social Work, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

School adjustment includes academic, social and emotional adjustment. It is viewed as the process that the students adopt to maintain balance between their academic, social and emotional needs within the school environment. Though adjustment is a major concern at all stages of life, it becomes critical during adolescence. Adolescent who have strong emotional ties with their families, are aware of the presence of their families who can support them at all times. They are thus affected lesser by any problems, giving them a feeling of security and thus reducing the issues of concern at this stage of their life. However, the adolescents who are deprived of family environment may experience various concerns and fears or show low adjustment levels, high emotional problems, difficulty in social interactions and many other indicators of maladjustment and poor well being. Similarly, the adjustment among the school going adolescent girls living with their families and in orphanages may significantly vary. The present study aims to examine the social, educational and emotional adjustment among the school going adolescent girls residing in orphanages and with their families. The sample comprises of thirty school going adolescent girls aged between 14-18 years residing in orphanages and the ones living with their families. In each group, there are fifteen adolescent girls. Adjustment Inventory for school students developed by Sinha and Singh has been used in the study. The result of the present study indicates that the adolescent girls living in orphanages have lower social and educational adjustment level as compared to the girls who live along with their families. The emotional adjustment level of the adolescent girls living in orphanages and families are almost same.