Looking for Gender Differences among Adolescents on Well-Being

Adolescence is a crucial stage in life and the growing child's experiences have a long lasting impact on their mental health. Parental practices vis-a-vis child's biological sex can bring out experiential differences in terms of their happiness and well-being. The present investigation aims to look for gender differences among adolescents on well-being. For the purpose of the present study, a total of 102 adolescent students studying in a government school in Mohali, have been studied on all the study variables. Out of 102 students, 5 8 are boys and 44 are girls, all in the age range of 14 to 17 years. The subjects were assessed on The Happiness Measure (Fordyce, 1988); Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) (Scheier & Carver, 1994); Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 2007); General Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer, 1992); and The Sterling's Children Weil-Being Scale (Liddle & Carter, 2009). The assessment was done with the goal of looking for gender differences among adolescents on well-being. Results indicated that the mean scores on happiness, hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, peer pressure, and positive outlook, are higher for boys. The mean scores on optimism, positive emotional state, and total well-being are higher for girls. The mean scores on prosocial behaviour and self efficacy have come out to be equal for boys and girls. Sex differences emerged only on peer pressure implying boys to be more influenced by peer pressure than girls. The paper will try to understand the trends of the findings.