A Comparative Study on Parental Aspiration and Academic Stress among Adolescents of Rural and Urban Area

Academic stress is a mental discomfort with respect to some expected frustration related with academic failure. Parents which serves as first school for the child appears to be an important source of rising expectation, therefore the study was conducted to examine the relationship of parental aspiration and with academic stress. The study was undertaken in Hisar district of Haryana state in rural and urban area. A list of adolescents was prepared from rural and urban area i.e. 100 from rural area and 100 from urban area thus making a total sample of 200 adolescents. The sample represents equal number of boys and girls ranging in 16-18 years of age group comprising equal sample size with regards to area of residence. Parental aspiration scale by Grover and Grover (1987) was used to assess perceived parental aspiration of respondents, and academic stress scale by Rao (2012) was used to assess academic stress of respondents. The finding elucidates that urban respondents perceived higher parental aspiration than rural respondents. The results further highlighted that female respondents perceived higher parental aspiration than their counterparts. Results further revealed that urban respondents face more academic stress than rural respondents. Results further pinpointed that ordinal position, occupation of mother, and parent's income of the respondents was significantly and negative correlated with academic stress. Parental aspiration and parent's education was significantly and positively correlated with academic stress.