A Study of Gender Differences in Self Esteem, Parent Adolescent Relationship and Sibling Relationship of Students at Secondary School Level

The present study examined gender differences in self esteem, parent adolescent relationship and sibling relationship in secondary school students. The sample for the present study comprised of 600 (300 males and 300 females) secondary school students of the private and public schools from Chandigarh and Mohali studying in tenth, eleventh and twelveth class. The sample was drawn using the random sampling technique. The private and public schools were chosen randomly by selecting schools in different sectors of Chandigarh and Mohali in order to have full representation of the students of tenth, eleventh and twelveth class across Chandigarh and Mohali. The inclusion criteria used for sample selection was that age of the students ranged from 15-19 years and students coming only from intact families and having at least one sibling were considered for the study. The tools comprised of Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1979), Parent Adolescent Relationship Questionnaire (Prinz , 1979) and Sibling relationship questionnaire (Furman&Buhrmester, 1985). Results indicate no significant gender differences in self esteem and parent adolescent relationship. However, significant differences were found on dimensions of status and warmth dimension of sibling relationship but no significant differences were found on conflict and rivalry dimension of sibling relationship.