Comparison of Emotionally Maladjusted and Adjusted Adolescents on Mental Health, Self-Esteem, and Aggression

Abstract

Adolescence is a stage of turmoil. A lot of changes take place during this period. These changes affect adjustment 
among adolescents immensely.  Emotional adjustment is very much affected during this stage. There may be various 
factors which actually play role in emotional adjustment of the adolescents. The present study aims to find out the 
differences between emotionally adjusted and maladjusted adolescents on self esteem, aggression and mental health. 
The sample for the present study consists of total 228 adolescents (114 adjusted and 114 maladjusted). Four 
standardized scales i.e. Bell Adjustment Inventory, Mental Health Battery, Self-Esteem Inventory, , and Aggression 
Questionnaire were administered on the sample. The data are subjected to t-test and discriminant functional 
analysis. Results of t-test show that emotionally maladjusted adolescents are having poor self esteem, higher 
aggression and poor mental health as compared to their adjusted counterparts. Significant differences are found on 
eight out of eleven variables.  When all the variable taken together to find out discriminants between the groups, 
four variables i.e. emotional stability, socially perceived self, overall adjustment and self-concept are found to 
differentiate between emotionally maladjusted and adjusted groups.