Emotional Maturity and Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students

Academic achievement has great importance for both the student, and those around him/her. There can be no doubt that it is affected by two broad factors: subjective factors or individual factors and objective factors or environmental factors. The subjective factors are related to the individual himself and the objective factors pertain to the environment of the individual. Emotional maturity is one of the individual and non-cognitive factors that may affect the academic achievement of the students. According to Walter D. Smitson (1974), Emotional maturity is a process in which the personality is continuously striving for greater sense of emotional health, both intra- psychically and intra-personally. Jersild (1963) says that Emotional maturity means the degree to which the person has realized his potential for richness of living and has developed his capacity to enjoy things, to relate himself to others, to love and to laugh, his capacity for whole hearted sorrow when an occasion for grief arises, his capacity to experience anger when faced with thwarting that is capable of raising the temper of any reasonably tolerant or sensible person and his capacity to show fear when there is occasion to be frightened without feeling a need to use a false mask of coverage, such as must be assumed by persons afraid to admit that they are afraid. Emotional Maturity is a state of balanced feelings and self-control. Person is said to be emotionally mature who has in his possession almost all kinds of emotions (positive as well as negative) and is able to express them justly, skillfully and timely in different situations of life. Today most of the young students do not achieve according to the expectations of the parents as well as the teachers despite of the fact they being intelligent. The previous research findings of Kaur (2001), Gakhar (2003) who reported non-significant relationship between emotional maturity and academic achievement. Thus, a little information is available to show the contribution of emotional maturity in the academic achievement of high school students. Hence, the present investigation has been aimed at studying the role of Emotional maturity in academic achievement of high school students and also to see the sex and regional differences on the basis of their emotional maturity.

1. To study relationship between Emotional maturity and academic achievement of high school students. 3. To study and compare difference in the Emotional maturity of rural and urban high school students.

Normative survey method has been followed. The present study is based on correlation method where the dependent variable is academic achievement and the independent variable is emotional maturity, general mental ability, social maturity, Tolerance and anxiety.

The sample consisted of 400 students of X class, selected from the different schools of Gujarat. Out of which 200 were boys (100 rural and 100 urban) and 200 were girls (100 rural and 100 urban). The sample was collected using multistage random sampling technique. Measures In the present study Rao's Social Maturity Scale (RSMS) (2002), Ahuja's Group Test of Intelligence (1998), Sharma's General Anxiety Scale for Children (GASC) (2003) and Singh & Bharagava's Emotional Maturity Scale (1999) have been used. Marks obtained by the students in their annual Board matriculation examination have been taken as an index of their level of academic achievement. Procedure The scales were administered to the subjects in groups in the regular classroom situation. The instructions were provided in the first page of the scale booklet which is self-explanatory. The answers of the subjects were recorded on the scales protocol. Scoring was done according to the instructions given in the different manuals. In order to analyze the data, raw scores obtained on the basis emotional maturity, general mental ability, social maturity, anxiety and academic achievement were converted into T-scores. Pearson's product moment correlation, first, second and third order partial coefficients of correlation and multiple correlation techniques were used to find out the correlation and contribution of emotional maturity in the academic achievement of high school students. T-test was applied to know the significance of the differences between the mean of emotional maturity scores of boys and girls, rural and urban students.

The value of product moment coefficient of correlation between emotional maturity and academic achievement was found to be of the order of r = -0.08 students. In order to verify these results on the basis of gender, the product moment coefficients of correlation b e t w e e n e m o t i o n a l m a t u r i t y a n d t h e academic achievement scores of boys and girls were calculated and found to be of the order of r= -0.18 (df=198, N=200) which is significant at .01 level and r= 0.07 (df =198 N=200) which is not significant. In order to nullify the effect of other variables i.e. general mental ability, anxiety and social maturity, first, second and third order partial coefficients of correlation for the total sample and for boys and girls separately were computed. The values of third order partial coefficient of correlation between emotional maturity and academic achievement of high school students got increased from r= -0.08 to r14.235 = -0.152 when the effect of general mental ability, anxiety and social maturity was nullified. The value of partial coefficient of correlation between emotional maturity and academic achievement was reduced in case of girls from r= 0.07 to r14.235= -0.003 as compared to that of boys where it was increased from r= -0.18 to r14.235 = -0.222 when the effect of all the three variables was eliminated. The relationship between academic achievement and emotional maturity has become strong which is more marked in case of boys and the total sample than the girls indicating the meaning that in case of girls general mental ability, anxiety and social maturity play no significant role in explaining the relationship between emotional maturity and academic achievement as compared to boys and the total sample where all the three partial out variables play negative role. For knowing the contribution of emotional maturity in the academic achievement of high school students, multiple coefficients of correlation were computed. The result of t-test of significance of the means applied to each group indicated that neither boys and girls nor rural and urban high school students differ significantly in their emotional maturity scores as the values of t-test applied are found to be non-significant. It means although there is no significant difference in emotional maturity of boys and girls yet the level of emotional maturity in case of girls is higher as compared to their counterparts. High emotional maturity in girls may be because girls are more expressive and have more sentiments and toleration power as compared to boys who by nature are less expressive and sensitive. The results are supported by the studies conducted by Kashyap (1989), Kaur(2001), Kaur(2001), Mahajan (2001), Slathia (2002), Katyal (2003), Kaur (2003), Gakhar (2003), Kaur (2004) and Lekhi (2005) who reported no significant differences in the emotional maturity of adolescent boys and girls. The urban high school students' show lower emotional maturity (high emotional maturity score) as compared to rural high school students and it may be due to the fact that

sources of entertainment at their disposal whereas in urban setting life is full of competition, challenge, students are more active and parents are more serious about the studies and future of their wards and also check time to time the activities of their children. The findings of my study are in resonance with the findings of Harleen (1998) and Kaur (2001) in which rural students were found to be more emotionally mature as compared to urban students. But the findings of Sharma and Singh (1997), Miley Patnam and Vasekar (2003), Kaur (2004) and Lekhi (2005) reported significant differences in the emotional maturity of adolescents of rural and urban areas.

1. Emotional maturity played no significant role in the academic achievement of high school students in a given set of variables. Emotional maturity in case of boys contributed negligibly in their academic achievement. 2. The increased values of partial coefficients of correlation between emotional maturity and academic achievement indicate the positivity of relationship between emotional maturity and academic achievement which was more marked in case of boys than the girls. 3. Girls were more emotionally mature than boys whereas rural high school students were slightly more.

1. To enable the students to achieve more , the study of such factors like general mental ability, anxiety, tolerance, emotional maturity and social maturity is important to see whether they play any role in the academic achievement or not. 2. It is essential for the teachers and teacher- educators to know and check the level of personality factors like anxiety, tolerance, emotional maturity and social maturity which directly or indirectly influence t h e academic achievement of high school students so that preventive measures may be suggested regarding their adverse effect.

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