Self-Growth and Sustainability for Differently-abled Rural Students
INTRODUCTION
The differently-abled persons are an integral part of our society. Disableness is one of the hardest effect as differently-abled persons seriously do not understand why each person else is normal in which they aren’t. Disableness affects a person in different ways. It impacts his mental/physical health, social relationship with family, friends, & neighbors, and also his independence in performing normal activities e.g.walking, driving etc. Physical disabilities may cause difficulty with dexterity, movement, hearing, and vision (Rokach, et. al. 2006). Research has proven that adolescents and youths with disabilities may face many social difficulties, including stigma, unrealistic attitudes; and prejudice. (Glover, et.al, 2011; Groce, 2004; Verma & Srivastava 2021) Support from family and friends have been found to reduce the impact of psychological problem among differently-abled students. (Calvete & Connor-Smith, 2006) Many studies reported that supportive parental attitudes and family support serve as a strong resiliency factor against poor mental health outcomes. It is found that inequality and less or no familial support felt by the differently-abled students belonging to rural area lead them to develop low self-esteem as well as low self-confidence. This eventually keeps them away from main stream of society. Self-esteem may be positive or negative depending on how one perceives himself and the way s/he is treated by the others with whom one interacts. The others include parents, family members, friends etc. It is observed that if parents treat their children in a negative manner, the results may be serious. As a consequence of it , lack of self-confidence, low self-esteem etc. is observed among them. Consistent finding was reported by Shultz (1993). He conducted a comparative study on self-esteem among physically disabled and normal adolescents. Females with physical disabilities were found to be lower in self-esteem. Erikki, et.al. (1999) researched on social support and self-esteem among young people with impairment in visual that include blind and have low vision. This particular study says that relationships with pals contributed to a greater extent to the enhancement of the level of self-esteem of the young people with non-sighted individuals. Hence it is evident that peers play an important role here because it has been found that many adolescents with visual impairments have problems relating to peers and they may be completely isolated from friends-list and from smaller social networks by the sighted young teens so this study clearly shows that with the help of friends, the self of visually impaired young people can really be moulded and it can enhance the self-esteem. United States census bureau (2003) reported that about 5.2 million American youth, aged 5 to 20 had some long term physical, mental or emotional disabling condition, and apart from it low self-esteem was found among those disabled. Nair & Singh (2014) found no gender difference in self-esteem of physically disabled late adolescents. Consistent finding was reported reported by Jamadar & Manjula (2013) . Liaqat & Akram (2014) found significant difference in the level of self-esteem among male and female physically handicapped and results showed that physically handicapped male scored higher in self-esteem as compared to physically handicapped females. Nemček (2013) studied people with different kind of disability and reported higher self-esteem in women than men. Parents’ and teachers’ role in the development of identity, moral judgment, social interaction, and physical self-behaviour among children with visually impaired was found to be important. (Bowen, 2010; Pinquart & Pfeiffer, 2013) Shawareb (2005) found high level of self-esteem associated with higher level of social support among visually impaired students. Hence it is evident that self-esteem and self-confidence are important psychological attributes for personal growth in the quest to become productive citizen in society; therefore attaining and keeping self-esteem and self-confidence is highly valued (Cast & Burke,2002). Components of self-esteem include self-confidence (Owens, 1993).Without self-esteem and self-confidence the possibility of leading a successful productive life decreases. For children with disabilities, self-esteem and self-confidence are crucial elements for their success, as these feelings of frustration and experiences of reported failure, students with disabilities may experience low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence, since it is generally believed that self-esteem and self-confidence results from successful experiences. Mishra and Singh (2012) found significant lower self-concept among students with visually impaired. No significant difference in self-concept between boys and girls was found .The majority of students with visually impaired had average self-confidence in comparison to greater self-confidence among sighted participants. A study conducted by Kumar & Verma (2019) reported positive significant relationship between emotional maturity and self-confidence among physically disabled students.
It is evident from literature review that family support plays a significant role in improving the self-esteem and self-confidence level in people with disabilities. But very few studies on orthopedically disabled persons belonging to rural area have been done so far.
Objectives
The present study aimed to investigate
The relationship of family support with self-esteem and self-confidence among differently-abled students belonging to rural area, whose orthopaedic disability ranges between 40 to 70 percent.
Another objective of the present study is to find out gender difference in family support, self-esteem, and self-confidence among them.
Hypotheses
1- There is a significant relationship between family support and self-esteem of differently-abled students.
2- There is a significant relationship between family support and self-confidence of differently-abled students.
3- There is a significant difference between male and female differently-abled students in relation to family support.
4- There is a significant difference between male and female differently-abled students in relation to self-esteem.
5- There is a significant difference between male and female differently-abled students in relation to self-confidence.
Research method
Research Design: An Ex-post facto research design is used.
Sample: A total number of 50 differently-abled students (25 boys and 25 girls; age range:18-20 years ;Mage=19 years ) is purposively drawn from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Institute of Technology for Handicapped , Kanpur. After the consent of the sample, data collection was done.
Tools
Family Support Scale (2004): Family support scale developed by Rajneesh is a self-report measure. It consists of 45 items related to five dimensions of family support i.e Academic Support , Motivational Support , Emotional Support , Financial Support , Other Kinds of Support . The reliability of the scale is 0.94. The scale has been found to be highly significant and satisfactory in validity .
Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (1965): This scale is ten item likert scales with items answered on a four point rating scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The scale has positive as well as negative scoring. Test-retest reliability for the RSE scale range from 0.82 to 0.85.Internal consistency for the Rosenberg self esteem scale is from 0.77 to 0.88. Higher the score, higher the self esteem.
Self-Confidence Inventory (2012): This scale was developed by Dr. Rekha Gupta .The scale consists of 56 items, with two response categories i.e. 'right' and 'wrong'. The test- retest reliability of the inventory was found to be 0.78 and split-half reliability was 0.91 . The validity of the inventory was found to be 0.82 . The higher the score , the lower would be the level of self-confidence and vice-versa.
Statistical analysis: Statistical analysis is done by using mean, standard deviation, t-test and Pearson’s product moment correlation.
Result and discussion
Table 17.1: Family support and self-esteem
An observation of Table 17.1 reveals that correlation of family support with self-esteem (r = .791**, p= .000) is indicating that there is positive significant correlation between family support and self-esteem. Positive correlation indicates that, as the family support increases, self-esteem of differently-abled students also increases and vice-versa. Therefore, the formulated hypothesis that there is a significant relationship between family support and self-esteem of differently-abled students has been accepted.
Table 17.2: Family support and self-confidence
**Significant at 0.01 level
An observation of Table 17.2 reveals that correlation of family support with self-confidence (r = -.860**, p= .000 ) is indicating that there is a significant inverse relationship between family support and self-confidence. Here negative relationship occurs because high score on self-confidence inventory shows less self-confidence. It means that there is a significant positive relationship between family support and self-confidence, hence formulated hypothesis is accepted.
Table 17.3: Statistical results
Table 17.3 shows that there is no significant difference between family support of male and female differently-abled students. The 't'-value is (‘t’= - .950, p > 0.05). Therefore, the formulated hypothesis that there is a significant difference between male and female differently-abled students in relation to family support, is rejected.
Table 17.4: Other statistical results
Table 17.4 shows that there is a significant difference between self-esteem of male and female differently-abled students. The’t’ – value is (‘t’= -2.673, p < 0.05) .Therefore, the formulated hypothesis that there is a significant difference between male and female differently-abled students in relation to self-esteem, is accepted.
Table 17.5; Statistical results
Table 17.5 shows that there is no significant difference between self-confidence of male and female differently-abled students. The’t’-value is (‘t’=-.153, p > 0.05).Therefore, the formulated hypothesis that there is a significant difference between male and female differently-abled students in relation to self-confidence, is rejected.
Findings
With the increase in family support, an increased self-esteem was found among differently-abled students.
High level of family support is found to be related with high self-confidence.
A significant difference in relation to self-esteem was found between male and female differently-abled students.
With higher family support, differently-abled female students are found to be having higher self-esteem and self-confidence in comparison to their male class-mates.
Conclusion
It is concluded that adequate familial support enables the differently-abled students coming from rural area in developing self-esteem and self-confidence. These are essential for self-growth, sustainability, and decent living. Thus, the findings of the study imply that family support of differently-abled students plays a significant role in the development of self-esteem and self-confidence. Self-esteem and self-confidence is reciprocal, so an effort to develop one domain would automatically lead to development in other domain. Therefore, it is the utmost duty of the parents, society, and school to provide proper educational, vocational, and psychological guidance to these students. Efforts should be made by the family and parents to provide them with the best possible atmosphere at home so that the self-esteem and self-confidence of the students can be enhanced to make them able to perform better in their life. This is applicable to both rural as well as urban areas.
References