Impact of Self-Esteem and Adjustment on Academic Performance of Adolescents

This study examined the impact of self-esteem and Adjustment on the academic Performance of students of a rural area in Public schools setting. Adjustment has an important role in behaviour of adolescents in dealing with people, controlling aggressiveness and to deal with various situations. Academic performance in secondary school is very important for adolescents as students who have high or average grades may have to access to higher education; thus an advantage for society and adolescents. Children and adolescents spend a lot of time and energy on academic performance, thus it is necessary for them to have high self esteem and better adjustment. Aim: The aim of the present study was to identify the relation between self esteem, adjustment and the academic performance of students. The sample of this study consisted of 200 adolescents from 3 schools in rural area of Palwal District of Haryana. Thus Present study was carried out to check the self-esteem and adjustment in early adolescents. It s a cross sectional study, in which Two hundred (200) adolescents; out of which one hundred were male and one hundred were female; selected by purposive sampling. Assessment was done by using, Adjustment inventory for school students and Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale. Academic performance was represented by self-reported result of previous passed out semester. The statistical analysis was carried out using the SPSS Windows 16.0 software package. A significant positive inter-correlation was existed between self esteem, adjustment and academic performance. A significant difference was found on adjustment and academic performance of male and female adolescents. Female adolescent scored lower than male adolescent on adjustment scale indicating female adolescents have good adjustment than male adolescents. Female students scored higher than male adolescents on academic performance. There was no significant difference was found on self esteem of male and female adolescents. The findings show that high or average level of self esteem and good adjustment affects the academic performance in a positive way. There is a suggestion for the school teachers to facilitate effective interpersonal relationships among students to encourage self esteem and to increase the level of publicity of guidance and counselling services in schools.