ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH SOCIAL ANXIETY AND SELF-ESTEEM IN MALE AND FEMALE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship of academic achievement with social anxiety and self-esteem in male and female school students. Social anxiety and self-esteem are common psychological problems. Research findings show that persons with social anxiety report poor employment performance reduced social interaction and difficulties in school life. More over self-esteem has been found to be positively related with academic achievement. So it was hypothesized that educational achievement is negatively correlated with social anxiety and positively correlated with self-esteem. The sample for the study consisted of 551 boys and 449 girls of 9th class. The sample was taken by using stratified random sampling technique from the high schools of city district Lahore. Academic achievement was measured by a valid achievement test, especially developed for this purpose. SmajiIztrabkaPaimana that is an adapted Urdu version of Interaction Anxiousness Scale (Leary, 1983) was used to assess the intensity of social anxiety. Qadr- e- ZaatkaPaimana (adapted Urdu version of Rosenberg self-esteem scale) was used to assess the self-esteem of the students. A series of t tests, Pearson product moment correlation, regression analysis and one way ANOVA were used for statistical analysis of the data. The results show that academic achievement has positive relationship with self-esteem and negative relationship with social anxiety. Self esteem has negative relationship with social anxiety. Female students performed better than male students on academic achievement test. However the boys have higher level of self-esteem and lower level of social anxiety as compared to the female students. Parents’ education and monthly income of family has positive relationship with academic achievement and negative relationship with social anxiety.