Comparison of Adjustment Problems among Adolescent Boys and Girls in Selected Government School at Puducherry

Background: Adolescence is the most critical and important period in an individual’s life development. It is the period of rapid revolutionary changes in physical, mental, moral, spiritual, sexual and social outlook. Adolescents are facing multitude problems throughout the world. Young people suffer from different maladjustment problems at one time or the other during their development. Worldwide 10-20% of children and adolescents are affected by mental health problems. Objectives: to assess the level of adjustment problems among adolescent boys and girls, to compare the level of adjustment problem between adolescent boys and girls and to associate the level of adjustment problems of boys and girls with their selected demographic variables. Methodology: The research approach used for this study was quantitative research approach and the design selected was descriptive survey research design purposive sampling techniques was used to collect the data. The researcher compared the level of adjustment problems of the adolescent boys and girls students studying 9^th standard by using A.K.P. Sinha and R.P. Sign Adjustment Inventory tool. By purposive sampling technique 618 adolescent were selected out of which 309 subjects were boys and 309 subjects were girls. Result: The finding of the study showed that majority 236 (76.4%) of adolescent boys and 231 (74.8%) of adolescent girls had very unsatisfactory level of adjustment, 72 (23.3%) of adolescent boys, 73 23.6%) of adolescent girls had unsatisfactory level of adjustment, and only (0.3%) adolescent boy, 5 (1.6%) of adolescent girls had average level of adjustment. Boys level of adjustment was associated with care taker, for girls it was significant associated with occupation of mother and place of residence at the level of p value<0.05 and p<0.001. Conclusion: Parents and teachers have an important role in protecting the adolescent from conflicts, frustration, and stress and equip them by providing adequate coping skill with the environment.