Gender, Family Size and Birth Order as Determinants of Social Adjustment among Adolescents in Himachal Pradesh

The present investigation was conducted to examine the effect of gender, family size and birth order on social adjustment of adolescents. Samples of 150 adolescents (75 males and 75 females) in the age range of 16-18 years, studying in 11th and 12th standard were selected from four English medium schools of Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh. Global Adjustment Scale developed by Psy-Com Services (1994) was used for measuring social adjustment among the selected sample of adolescent boys and girls. A 2*2*2 analysis of variance with unequal replicates was carried out to see the independent and interactive effect of gender, family size and birth order on social adjustment of adolescents. Results revealed that gender has established significant effect on social adjustment of adolescent with boys having significantly better social adjustment as compared to girls. Furthermore, findings also revealed that gender was involved in significant higher order interaction effect with birth order. Results clearly indicated that male later born students had better social adjustment as compared to male first born students. In, addition to this, the findings of present study also suggested that female first born students had better social adjustment as compared to female later born students. But the family size does not seem to play its significant role on social adjustment of adolescents in Himachal Pradesh.