Role of psycho-social factors on academic performance of tribal and non-tribal high school students

Pages: 722-726
Namita Mohanty and Swagatika Mohapatra (Department of Psychology, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha)
Jitendra Mohanty (Department of Management, KSOM, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha)
Prabhudarsan Sahoo (Department of Psychology, Nayagarh Autonomous College, Nayagarh, Odisha)

The present study examined the effects of cultural identity and gender on academic anxiety, self-concept and academic performance of high school tribal and non-tribal adolescent students. The research adopted a 2 (Cultural identity) x 2 (Gender) factorial design. The sample consisted of 200 subjects, 100 tribal and 100 non-tribal high school students. There were 50 boys and 50 girls each from the tribal and non-tribal category. Results revealed that girls experienced higher academic anxiety than boys and non-tribal students had better self-concept than their tribal counterparts. In academics boys performed better than the girls. Moreover, a significant positive relationship between academic anxiety and self-concept of tribal students indicated that in spite of having higher self-concept, tribal students experienced greater academic anxiety. Results were interpreted in terms of differential exposure and experiences to socio-cultural as well as educational practices prevalent in tribal and non-tribal societies.