A Study Of The Influence Of Home Environment On The Adjustment Of Secondary School Students

Abstract

Adjustment refers to the ability to cope in social situations and achieve satisfaction of one’s needs.  It is the achievement of harmony between an individual and his environment which affords him comfortable life devoid of strain, stress, conflict and frustration. It is also the process of adapting behavior to a changed environment.  Home plays a central role in the development of cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics of children. Home environment is one of the important factors that has significant effect on the adjustment of school going children. The present study is an attempt to explore the influence of home environment on the adjustment of students in the secondary schools of Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh.  The researchers investigated to know the influence of four demographic variables, viz., gender, location of the school, occupation of parents and parental income on the adjustment of secondary school students in relation to their Home Environment.  Descriptive Survey method has been    adopted for the present investigation. A sample of 1000 students (460 boys and 540 girls) from the secondary schools of Visakhapatnam district has been selected using stratified random sampling method. The researchers used Home Environment Inventory (HEI) developed by K.S. Mishra (2012) to collect data from the respondents.  The data were analyzed using different statistical techniques such as means, standard deviations, t-test and one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).  The findings of the study revealed that the location of the school, occupation of parents and parental income have no influence on the adjustment of students in secondary schools to Home Environment. However, the gender has a positive influence on their adjustment to Home Environment. The study has suggested that home environment should be congenial for students to adjust themselves to the new situations.