Self-construals in Adolescence: Intersections of Gender and Streams of Education among High School Students in India

Abstract

Self-concept (SC) refers to an individual's self-perceptions and is shaped by temperament, experiences with and interpretations of one's environment. This study aimed at investigating the differences in SC and its various dimensions (physical, social, educational, moral, intellectual, temperamental) among high school boys and girls studying in different academic streams. A sample of 218 high- school students (males=100, females=118) were recruited using purposive sampling. The sample belonged to 3 different steams of study (Science, Commerce and Humanities) and were administered the Self-Concept Questionnaire (Saraswat, 1984) to assess their global and domain-wise SC. Data was analyzed using SPSS 23. On performing 2 x 3 ANOVA and further PostHoc analysis, findings indicated that gender had a significant main effect on total (p=0.04), educational (p=0.01) and moral (p=0.01) SC. Girls obtained significantly higher scores on these as compared to boys. Results with respect to stream of study showed that Humanities students had significantly higher SC than Science students (p=0.004). Implications and future directions are discussed.