A Study on Social Maturity of Adolescents Across their Family Type

The present study assessed and compared the social maturity of adolescents in orphanages, single parent families and intact families. The sample consisted of300 adolescents in the age group of 14-16 years, trom the four selected cities of Punjab (Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, & Hoshiarpur). From the selected orphanages, 100 school going adolescents were drawn and also, 100 adolescents were selected under both single parent families and intact families trom the government schools. Respondents were equally distributed across both the genders (Boys 50, Girls=50, in each category). Self designed general information questionnaire along with the Social Maturity Scale was administered to collect the data. The results of the present study revealed that most of adolescents irrespective of their family type showed medium level of personal, interpersonal and social adequacy. Interestingly, total social maturity of most of the adolescents also found to be medium and almost negligible difference was found in their proportions across family type. Also, the adolescents from orphanages were found socially less mature as compared to those residing with intact families and with single parent families. Parents or caretakers can boost social maturity of the children by testing their capacity for observation and social learning, by make them learn how to become more socially mature, and by strengthening their poor peer relationships.