Academic Factors Predicting Highschool Adjustment

“ACADEMIC STRESS, ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION, AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AS PREDICTORS OF ADJUSTMENT AMONG HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS. ” ABSTRACT The main aim of the present study was to explore the relative contribution of academic stress, achievement motivation and academic achievement among adjustment of high school students. It was hypothesized that adjustment will be significantly predicted on the basis of academic stress, achievement motivation and academic achievement. 160 students of Sangli and Kolhapur district were selected by random sampling method.

Multiple regressions were done to analyze the collective data.

The findings of the study revealed that academic stress and adjustment is negatively related with each other, while achievement motivation and academic achievement is positively related with adjustment. Most important finding of this study is that, academic achievement and stress is found to be the most successful predictor of adjustment among high school students. Dr. R. K. Adsul. (HOD, Psychology dept. ) Smt. Mathubai Garware Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Sangli. Vikas S. Kamble. ( Lecturer) Smt.

Kasturbai Walchand College, Sangli In 21st century the world is changing very rapidly.

Every one is surviving for superiority. Today a very high academic achievement has become an important need to seek admission to good courses. This has become a fact for every student. Hence, in educational settings every student has to work hard for better prospects. In the absence of high academic achievements one has face frustration and disappointment. Hence maladjustment the educational world. The problem of academic adjustments is a current issue of educational world.

It needs serious consideration. High school students have been suffering from various demands.

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Adjustment is a capacity of an individual to function effectively in relation to other people (Sechrest and Wallace, 1967). There are many areas of adjustment such as educational, occupational, emotional and home or family adjustment. Educational adjustment is a continuous process of maintaining harmony among the attitudes of the individuals and environmental conditions which surround them in school. (Singh and Sen Gupta, 1987).

Academic adjustment means an adjustment task of dealing successfully with school and experience attached with school (Dutt, 1983). Educational adjustment indicates how far a student is satisfied with the school administration. Proper adjustment at school helps the students to build their confidence and it is benefited to their future success. If there is something wrong with any aspect of adjustments it would be reversely affected on their academic achievement. So early detection of maladjustment will help the student in achieving great kind of success.

A lots of variables are contributed to academic adjustment such as academic stress, achievement motivation academic achievement, self concept, personality pattern etc. Academic stress is an unavoidable part of modern world students. Gupta and Khan (1987) pointed out that academic stress is mental distress with respect to some anticipated frustration associated with academic failure. Serap and Joseph (2003) in a study framed that learned resourcefulness moderates the relationship between academic stress and academic performance. Analyses revealed that academic stress was negatively associated with academic achievement.

Academic achievement is related to the acquisition of principles and generalizations, and the capacity to perform efficiently with certain manipulation of objects, symbols and ideas (Narayan Rao, 1990). Though it is 50th century concept, it is now widely used and heard in the area of education (Mangal 2000). In the practical life we can observe that those who seemed to be high on achievement motivations they were also high on academic achievement and they were always busy in constructive work. Their maximum task seems to be goal directed.

Such pupils are properly adjusted in school environment. They can achieve great kind of success. Krishna Murthy (2000) reported that there is significant positive relationship between achievement motivation and academic achievement. Educational adjustments are very important for academic achievement. Ramanna Sood (1992) found significant relationship between achievement motivation and adjustment. According to Good (1993) academic achievement means knowledge attained or skills developed in the school subject, usually designated by test scores or by marks assigned by teachers or by both.

Best (1977) pointed out that academic grades assigned by teachers or scores on standardized achievement test is operational definition of academic achievement. According to George and Ravindran (2005) many factors contribute to academic achievement. The major ones are intelligence, adjustments, motivation, academic stress, level of aspirations and time perception etc. In present study academic achievement is being studied with the adjustment, achievement motivation and academic stress. Methodology Aim of the study

The main aim of the present study is that there is possibility of prediction of adjustment of high school students on the basis of academic stress, achievement motivation and academic achievement. Objectives of the study 1) To measure the academic stress, achievement motivation and adjustment of high school students and find out whether the difference between male-female, urban-rural and high and low achievers is significant or not. 2) To study the strength of association between academic stress and achievement motivation. ) To examine the direction and strength of relationship between academic stress and achievement motivation. 4) To understand the relationship between academic stress and adjustments 5) To find out the correlation coefficient between achievement motivation and academic achievement. 6) To assess the strength of association between achievement motivations and adjustment. 7) To see the relationship between academic achievement and adjustment. 8) To examine the possibility of predicting the adjustment of high school students on the basis of academic stress, achievement motivation and academic achievement.

Hypotheses of the study 1) Male and female, urban and rural students as well as high and low achievers significantly differ on academic stress, achievement motivation and adjustment. 2) Academic stress will be positively related to achievement motivation. 3) Academic stress and academic achievement will be significantly and negatively associated to each other. 4) Academic stress will be negatively contributed to adjustment. 5) Achievement motivation and academic achievement will be significantly correlated to each other, relationship is positive. ) Academic achievement will be positively and significantly related to adjustment. 7) Academic achievement will be positively contributed to adjustment. 8) Adjustment will be significantly predicted on the basis of academic stress, achievement motivation and academic achievement. Sample One hundred and sixty students studying in the 9th and 10th std. from various high schools in Sangli and Kolhapur district were selected by random sampling method. They varied in age range from 13 to 15 years. 62 rural and 98 urban students selected. The ratio of male -female and high and low achiever students kept as 1:1.

Who had got a 35 to 45 percent marks at their previous year examination, is considered as low achievers and who secured above 60 percent marks, is considered as high achiever students. Tools Following standardized psychological scales were used to collect the data from participants. 1) Bisht Battery of Stress Scale: (BBSS) Developed by Dr. Abha Rani Bisht(1987) to measure the four components of stress viz. frustration, conflict, pressure and anxiety. BBSS is set of thirteen various sub scales. From it we used scales of academic stress (SAS) reliability of SAS is . 88 and validity is quite high.

The total numbers of items is 80 with five point alternatives ranging from always to never. Respondents have to select one alternative to giving their response. Two types of scores are obtained from this scale viz. total frequency of stress and total quantity of stress. High score on scale denotes high stress and low score denotes low stress. 2) Achievement Motive Test (ACMT) Developed by Dr. V. P. Bhargav (1994). It is a sentence completion test and it has a 50 incomplete sentences. Each item has three alternatives and respondents have to select one alterative by putting tick mark.

Test-retest reliability is . 91 and validity index of this test is . 85. The score on the scale range from above 23 which indicates high achievement motivation and from below 11 which means low achievement motivation. 3) Bell’s Adjustment Inventory (BAI) Developed by Dr. R. K. Ojha to measure the four components of adjustment viz. home, health, social and emotional. The total number of items on BAI is 35 with ‘Yes’, ‘No’ alternatives of responses BAI has reliability coefficient approximately . 80 to . 90. High scores denote the very unsatisfactory and low scores denote the excellent adjustment. ) Academic Achievement Shapiro (2000) defines academic achievement as academic assessment of performance. Following this definition, the annual percentage of marks of the participants at their previous examination will be used as an indicator of academic achievement. Procedure The heads of the institutions were contacted and permission was sought from them to administer the psychological tests on the students. After seeking permission from various schools data collection process started. These psychological tests administered in a group of 25 to 30 students at a time.

After a rapport formation and explanation the purpose of the study, students was instructed how to solve the psychological tests and one by one all scales gave to students with a short rest. Table No. 1. Mean Comparison of Various Groups on Academic Stress, Achievement Motivation and Adjustment |Variables |Groups |N |Mean |Std. |t | | | | | |Deviation | | | |Male |80 |285. 54 |46. 7 |. 04 | | | | | | | | |Academic | | | | | | |Stress | | | | | | | |Female |80 |285. 88 |56. 90 | | | |Rural |62 |281. 1 |50. 66 |. 75 | | |Urban |98 |288. 17 |52. 64 | | | |High Achievers |80 |243. 16 |31. 33 |18. 25** | | |Low Achievers |80 |328. 25 |27. 51 | | | |Male |80 |17. 75 |5. 33 | 1. 6 | | | | | | | | |Achievement | | | | | | |Motivation | | | | | | | |Female |80 |18. 60 |4. 73 | | | |Rural |62 |18. 3 |5. 61 |. 32 | | |Urban |98 |18. 07 |4. 67 | | | |High Achievers |80 |22. 35 |3. 53 |18. 71** | | |Low Achievers |80 |14. 00 |1. 84 | | | |Male |80 |42. 47 |10. 58 |. 1 | | | | | | | | |Adjustment | | | | | | | |Female |80 |44. 15 |12. 49 | | | |Rural |62 |42. 70 |10. 77 |. 52 | | |Urban |98 |43. 69 |12. 9 | | | |High Achievers |80 |37. 78 |11. 03 |6. 85** | | |Low Achievers |80 |48. 83 |9. 28 | | ** Significant at the 0. 01 level. In order to compare the academic stress, achievement motivation and adjustment of male –female, rural-urban as well as high-low achievers ‘t’ value were computed. There is a significant variation seen between the high and low achievers on academic stress, achievement motivation and adjustment.

The low achievers group had the highest academic stress (M=328. 25), unsatisfactory adjustment (M=48. 83), and low achievement motivation (M=14. 0) while high achievers group had the average academic stress (M=243. 16), average adjustment level (M=37. 78) but high achievement motivation (M=22. 35). Those who have shown the low academic performance at school level have a very few ability to cope with stressors, they can’t complete home assignments on right time, they have interaction problems with other children and teachers, they can’t tolerate growing emphasis of co- curricular actives and demands of developing new skills.

Hence their emotional, social, educational and family adjustment collapsed. It is also reveal from table No. 1 that present sample didn’t differ on stress, achievement motivation and adjustment when taking consideration the male-female and rural-urban criteria. Kaushik and Rani (2000), Nagarathanamma and Rao (2007) on achievement motivation, Paliwal and et all (2006), Warriers (1994), Shalu and Audichya (2006) on adjustment, Mathew and Jayan (2006) on academic stress found that there is no significant gender, and residence difference. Table No. 2.

Correlation Matrix: Inter- Correlation among Adjustment and academic stress, achievement motivation and academic achievement. |Variables |Adjustment |Achievement |Academic |Academic | | | |Motivation |Stress |Achievement | |Adjustment |1. 0 |. 418** |-. 510** |. 524** | |Achievement | |1. |-. 719** |. 729** | |Motivation | | | | | |Academic | | |1. 0 |-. 790** | |Stress | | | | | |Academic | | | |1. | |Achievement | | | | | ** Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level. Table 2 presents the coefficient of r between adjustment and academic stress, academic achievement and achievement motivation. It is observed that, there is a significant positive correlation between adjustment and achievement motivation (r = . 41 p < . 01), adjustment and academic achievement (r = . 52 p < . 01),achievement motivation and academic achievement (r =. 2 p < . 01) Nagarathanamma and Rao (2007) conducted a study on 600 high school students and concluded that there was no significant relation found between achievement motivation and academic achievement. Students in Adolescent age are a full of spirit and energy and adolescence is a period of accomplishment hence every adolescent tries to achieve something like academic achievement, success in sports and cultural activities etc. It is found that there is a significant negative correlation between adjustment and academic stress (r =-. 51p < . 01).

It is also found that academic stress is negatively correlated with respectively achievement motivation and academic achievement (r = -. 71 and -. 79 p < . 01). Serap and Joseph (2003) found that academic stress was negatively associated with academic achievement. Poonam and Shanti (2006)found negative correlation between stress and academic achievement . Such negative relationship between academic achievement and academic stress was also reported by Moore (1997), ford (1993) and Alatorre & Rayer (1999). Pratibha sood (2006) found that achievement motivation was positively correlated to academic stress.

Atkinson (1966), Harries also found that stress had significant correlation with academic performance. Table 3 Step-wise Multiple Regression Analysis with adjustment as the criterion Variable among High school students. |Step No. |Predictors |R |Beta |R2 |Adjusted R2 |R2change |Ratio | |1 |Academic Achievement |. 524 |. 322 |. 274 |. 270 |. 274 |59. 67** | |2 |Stress |. 546 |. 255 |. 299 |. 290 |. 024 |5. 46 |

Table No. 3 shows the stepwise (forward) multiple regression analysis results obtained where academic achievement & Academic stress were the predictors and adjustment was the criterion variables. Table shows that academic achievement entered into the first step as determinant of adjustment among high school students. Scores on academic achievement accounted for 27. 4 percent of variance (R2 change = . 274, f 59. 67, P < 0. 1). With the addition of the next variable i. e. academic stress, the percent of variance in adjustment came out to be 2. 4 (R2 change = 0. 024, f. 5. 47 P < 0. 05).

However achievement motivation did not contribute to adjustment among high school students hence didn’t add to the multiple regression models. In brief three predictor variables had been kept for multiple regression but only two variables were entered into the model by SPSS. Academic achievement & academic stress were proved to be significant. Thus academic achievement & academic stress emerged as significant predictors for adjustment. Beta weights (. 32 and . 26) also reveal that academic achievement and academic stress are important variables in predicting adjustment. Conclusions Following conclusions were drawn from present study. ) High and low academic achievers are significantly differ on academic stress, academic achievement and achievement motivation. 2) There is no significant gender and residence difference on academic stress, academic achievement and achievement motivation. 3) There is a significant positive relationship between adjustment and academic achievement as well as academic achievement and achievement motivation. 4) Academic stress is negatively correlated with achievement motivation and academic achievement. 5) Achievement motivation and academic stress is significant predictors of adjustment of high school students.

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