Academic performance and social adjustment of the only child

• Main Authors: Lopez, Ma. Presentacion R., Salas, Miguel Angel Romero
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1984
• Subjects: Adjustment (Psychology) in children; Performance in children; Only child; Families
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/6156
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study was made in an effort to discover any difference between an only child and a non-only child with regards to their academic performance and social adjustment. The main problem of this study is whether being an only child affects his academic performance and social adjustment. For this main problem there are three specific sub-problems. The first is whether there is a difference in the academic and social adjustment of the only child and the non-only child. The last sub-problem is whether there is a difference in the academic performance and social adjustment of the female only child and the female non-only child. No hypothesis were put forward by the researchers due to the purposive sampling necessary for the study and also because it is an exploratory type in its research design. The subjects where not chosen from the population, instead the whole population of only children among the the freshmen in De La Salle University were tested. Aside from the only children, an equal number of non-only children were tested for comparative purposes. The only test instrument used was a self-administered questionnaire which was constructed by the researchers and patterned after the social adjustment section of the California Test of Personality. The researchers conducted a class to class search for the only-children whereupon the only children were asked to answer the questionnaire. After having found an only child, the researchers would then ask a volunteer among the non-only children to answer the questionnaire. As soon as all the classes were visited, the researchers tabulated the answers. The researchers discovered that there was a difference between the only children and the non-only children in both their academic performance and social adjustment. The results indicated that the non-only children, whether male or female, were slightly better in their academic performance and social adjustment than the only children, whether male or female. These results prompted the researchers to conclude that there is a difference between the non-only child and the only child, whether male or female, in their academic performance and social adjustment.