A comparative study of the self concept and level of aspiration of adolescent girls in Ernakulam district of Kerala, India

Early adolescence is a period that is characterized by heightened self consciousness and increased social comparison that compels early adolescents to evaluate their self-identity. Often adolescents set for themselves unattainable goals and this could transform this period into a roller coaster experience. Help from significant others in their lives could assist adolescents to distinguish between their ideal and their real selves. Most theorists believe the quality of parent child relations is closely linked to difference in self-descriptive and self-evaluative behaviour among children and youth. Socio-cultural and parental factors seem to be of paramount importance in determining perceptions of the self in children in the Indian context. Adolescents coming from the families where they were accepted by parents thought of themselves in more favourable terms as compared to the adolescents coming from the families where they were rejected. This study thus was an attempt to compare the Self –concept, Educational and occupational aspirations, general expectation and general performance of adolescents from the community living with their families and those in the orphanages.