Social Maturity in Relation to Maladjustment: A Comparative Study among Individuals of Slum and Suburbs

Slum area is a socially congested area of less infrastructure facility and facing a lot of difficulties when compared with the suburb individuals. Social maturity is a long process happens in an individual to be socially mature. In Psychology, adjustment refers to the behavioral process of balancing conflicting needs, or needs challenged by obstacles in the environment. The study was conducted to compare the social maturity level and adjustment of slum and non-slum individuals. The data was collected from 100 individuals i. e. , 50 from slum and 50 from suburb individuals in Thrissur district. The random sampling method was used. Mathews Maladjustment Inventory (MMI) and Social Maturity Scale (SMC) were used. For analyzing the data the statistical procedures such as t- test and Pearson coefficient of correlation were used. The result shows that there is significant difference in social maturity among slum and suburbs; there is no significant difference in maladjustment in slum and suburbs. And there is significant negative correlation exist in the relationship between social maturity and maladjustment. The findings is that awareness or psycho education should be given to slum people to increase the level of social maturity and to decrease the level of maladjustment in suburb individuals in their daily life.