Personality, Social Support and Family Environment:A Comparative View in Migrants and Non Migrants

Migration is the process of social change whereby an individual moves from one cultural setting to another for the purposes of settling down either permanently or for a prolonged period. When migration takes place, a sense of hopelessness and helplessness is developed which leads to depressive effect. If there is a discrepancy between what the migrants expect and what they get, then it will lead to dejection and it may leave the person psychologically vulnerable. In this study, the differences in the social support networks of migrant adolescents, their personality traits and their family environments are studied and are compared with non migrant adolescents. It is hypothesized that there will be significant differences between migrants and non migrants on the variables of social support, personality and family environment. A total number of 400 participants were collected for the study. There are 200 migrants and 200 non migrants in the sample. The group taken is 14-19 years. There are equal number of males and females in the sample. The migrants are taken from the schools situated in migrant camps from Kashmir. The psychological tools used are Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1986); NEO-Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 2003); and Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (Cohen & Hoberman, 1983). t ratios are used to study the differences between both the groups of migrants and non migrants. Their differences will be analyzed and elucidated.