The Effect of Perceived Loneliness on Achievement Motivation Self Esteem and Locus of Control Among Adolescents

Abstract

The present study investigates the effect of perceived loneliness (PL) on achievement motivation (AM), self-esteem (SE) and locus of control (LoC) among adolescents. A total of 300 school-going adolescents (150 males, 150 females) in the age group of 16-17 years (M=16.5; SD=0.5) participated in the study. The scales employed were Perceived Loneliness Scale (Jha, 1997), Achievement Motivation Scale (Deo and Mohan 2011), Locus of Control Scale (Indian adaptation of Levenson s Scale, Vohra, 1992), and Self-Esteem Inventory (Cooper-Smith, 1981). The analysis shows that boys have higher PL, lower SE, lower AM, higher influence of powerful others (PO) and chance control (CC) on outcomes, and lower individual control (IC) factor of LoC as compared to girls, according to their mean scores. Also, nuclear family adolescents have higher PL, lower AM, higher PO and CC factors of LoC, and lower IC factor of LoC as compared to joint family adolescents according to their mean scores. However, adolescents from nuclear and joint families do not differ with respect to SE. Correlation analysis indicated that PL has significant negative correlation with SE, AM and IC factor of LoC, and is positively correlated with PO and CC factor of LoC. There is significant difference in SE, AM, PO, CC and IC factor of LoC for adolescents with high and low PL. PL predicted SE, AM, PO, CC and IC factors in girls while in boys only SE, PO and CC factors were predicted. Also, PL predicted SE, AM, PO, CC and IC dimension of LoC in adolescents belonging to nuclear and joint families. MANOVA showed that main effects of PL, gender and family type were significant. There is significant effect between PL and SE, AM, PO and IC factor of LoC, gender and SE, AM, PO and CC factor of LoC, and between family type and CC and IC. Further, there was significant interaction effect between family type and PL on CC, while there was no significant interaction effect between gender and PL and family type on SE, AM, PO, and CC and IC factors of LoC newline