Social Maturity as a Function of Number of Children, Mother’s Educational Level and their Interaction

Recent years have witnessed considerable concern and debate on what could be an ideal family size primarily because of the population explosion taking place in the third world countries, mainly, China, India and Africa Simultaneously, a major change in the social order has taken place where the Indian society change the slogans like” May you be the Mother of hundred sons” to “Doo Ya Teen Bas” to “ Hum doo Humare doo” to the desperate plea of “Ladki Ya Ladka Ek hi Bas,” that is shifting gears to a single child or the only child due to the global and national pressures desiring change in the family size and structure The objective was to study the influence of Number of Children, Mother's Educational level and their interaction on Social Maturity separately. The sample comprised 979 children of 10–12 year selected through Stratified Random Sampling Method. Out of 979 children, the number of only child and child with siblings were 303 and 676 respectively. For Social Maturity the Indian adaptation version of Malin's Vineland Social Maturity Scale was used and data collected and put to appropriate data analysis. The findings of the study were Children whose Mother's Educational level was above Graduation were found to have better Social Maturity. Child with sibling group was found to be socially more adjusted than only child group. Both only child and child with siblings were found to attain Social Maturity to the same extent irrespective of the Educational Level of Parents.