The effect of self-concept and achievement motivation on the study habits of the children belonging to working and non-working mothers

Abstract

Introduction: Research studies on the growth and development of adolescent children belonging to working and non-working mothers revealed that the children belonging to working mothers had to compromise a lot with their psychological adjustment, emotional health, and socialization compared to their peers belonging to non-working mothers. Another way the children of non-working mothers were found more pampered, bullied, and overconfident was their behavioural problems. The cognitive development of this group of children was drastically affected by their mothers as working professionals or house mothers. Rationale: Though there are many research studies available on self-concept, academic achievement, and study habits of the students a few studies were found to be related to the adolescent children belonging to working and non-working mothers. Again a few studies were there on the effect of demographic characteristics of the children on their cognitive development. Besides, it was also important to investigate the correlation between the variables through the demographic characteristics of the students belonging to working and non-working mothers. Objective: The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of self-concept and achievement motivation on the study habits of secondary school children belonging to working and non-working mothers. Also, to study the effect of independent and dependent variables through the demographic characteristics of the secondary school students. Again, the study also investigated the correlation between the variables primarily as well as through their demographic characteristics. Methods: It was descriptive research. The methods were quantitative and included standardized questionnaires for the survey. The population study includes all students studying in secondary classes. The purposive sampling technique was adopted. The sample size was 150(N=150) and again was segregated with various demographic characteristics. Research Tools: The Achievement Motivation Scale(n-Ach) developed by Dr. Deo and Dr. Mohan, in 1985 and the Students Self-Concept Questionnaire developed by Dr. Saraswat in 1985 and revised in 2010 were used as standardized research tools to collect the data.  To consider the Academic Achievement criterion of the students their mark in their Pre-Board exams during academic year 2021-22 was taken into account. Data analysis and interpretation: The data were analyzed through the application of descriptive statistics, the t-test, and Pearson’s Product Moment correlation. Results: Self-concept and achievement motivation of the children belonging to working and non-working mothers had an extremely positive effect on their study habits (p< 0.0001). Also, self-concept had a very strong effect on the study habits of both male and female students (p< 0.0001). However, the achievement motivation of the children did not have a strong effect on their study habits((p> 0.0001).  The self-concept and achievement motivation had no significant effect on the study habits of students belonging to working mothers and living in rural areas. Better achievement motivation and better self-concept of urban students were found with better study habits. The self-concept of the children belonging to nuclear families with working and non-working mothers did not have a significant effect on their study habits. Achievement motivation did not have a significant effect on the study habits of the children of joint families. The self-concept and achievement motivation of the children from all three socio-economic backgrounds had a very significant effect on their study habits. It was found that despite their association with a single or both parents’ families their self-concept and achievement motivation have a very strong effect on their study habits. There was no significant correlation between the self-concept, achievement motivation, and study habits of the children belonging to either working or non-working mothers. There was a non-significant very small positive or negative relationship found between the self-concept, achievement motivation, and study habits of male and female students belonging to working and non-working mothers. There was a medium positive relationship between self-concept and study habits of students living in urban areas (r (98) = .493, p < .001). Precisely, the study revealed that the self-concept of the children belonging to nuclear families with working and non-working mothers did not have a significant effect on their study habits. Between Achievement motivation and study habits of the students living in the same residential background (r (98) = .187, p = .063).  There was a significant large positive relationship between self-concept and study habits of the students belonging to middle socio-economic background, as the (r (93) =0 .669, p < .001). There was a significant large positive relationship between X and Y (self-concept and study habits), (r (98) = .993, p < .00. A significant very small negative relationship between X and Y (achievement motivation and study habits) variables for the children living with both parents as the (r (98) = -0.872, p < .001). A significant very small negative relationship between achievement motivation and study habits, (r (98) = 0.511, p < .001) for the children belonging to single-mother families.