Emotional Maturity and Adjustment in First Year Undergraduates of Delhi University An Empirical Study

Entering into college is considered a time of stress and adjustment for any youth. The discrepancy between their expectations and the realities of the college contribute to lags in their emotional, academic, social, familial, sexual and health well-being. As a result of which they face difficulties in adjusting to the new c ollege life. The primary purpose of the present study is to explore the relationship between adjustment and emotional maturity of first year undergraduate students. It also aimed at investigating if there exist any gender difference in emotional maturity and adjustment. The sample for the study consisted of 80 first year undergraduates from various colleges of Delhi University. The age ranged between 17-19 years. The sample was selected through incidental sampling technique. They were administered the Global Adjustment Scale(Student Form) by Sanjay Vohra and Emotional Maturity Scale by Singh and Bhargava to measure adjustment and emotional maturity, respectively. The results showed a significant positive correlation between emotional maturity and various dimensions of adjustment (namely, emotional, family, college and social adjustment) at .01 and 0.05 level of significance. Also the t-test showed no significant difference in emotional maturity between the two genders. The study further revealed that there was no significant difference in the adjustment dimensions between boys and girls except for only the dimension of emotional adjustment, where females scored significantly higher than their male counterpart. Finally, few intervention techniques have been suggested along with implications to enable further research.