UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL MATURITY OF ADOLESCENTS: ANALYSING IMPACT OF BIRTH ORDER

The present study explored and compared the social and emotional maturity of 277 randomly drawn class XI students of Pantnagar across birth order. Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents were assessed employing a self-designed questionnaire while social and emotional maturity was measured using Rao's Social Maturity Scale and Emotional Maturity Scale, respectively. The study revealed significant association of social and emotional maturity with birth order. First-borns were found to be significantly more socially mature, socially adjusted and emotionally stablethan later-borns. Nevertheless, all components of social and emotional maturity were found to be significantly positively correlated with each other across birth order.