jagiri College of Social Science

KALAMASSERY, KOCHI-683104

DEPARTMENT: Social Work

ASSIGNMENT TITLE

Research synopsis

Marks/Grade:

SUBMITTED TO: Nycil Romis Thomas Remarks:

SUBMITTED BY: Siya Varghese

ROLLNO: 35 Signature:
DATE OF SUBMISSION: 09-02-2020
 RESEARCH PROPOSAL

TOPIC: A Comparative study on stress among the children’s of working and non-working
mothers in reference to their academic career and their adjustments to life.

INTRODUCTION:

The need of this study is to find about the stress that children of working mothers are facing when
compared to non-working mothers. Since Independence, more and more women in our country are
entering into different professions due to one or the other reasons. There is no harm in it, rather it
provides economic security to the family, but on the other hand psychologists are raising their voice
against it. They believe that absence of mother from home tends to affect negatively the personality
make up of a child. With the emergence of a new economic pattern, increasing opportunities for
education, rising standard of living and increased modernization, women for the middle and upper
class families have also started coming out from their traditional role of a home-maker to join the
work force. Employment of women has created number of problems to their children and paved
way for controversies regarding maternal employment.lt brings emotional deprivation to the
school age children. Home and school both influence the child’s development and personality.
Because if mother will not give adequate time and attention to their children, they can become
maladjusted insecure and will not be able to adjust with their environment and their studies which
will affect their studies negatively, leading to academic stress. The academic stress is of great
concern among school going students. It may involve Examination’s tensions, feeling of insecurity,
low achievement, and negative consequences of failures, excessive competition etc. It gives birth to
many problems including health problems and adjustment problems. Therefore, it has become the
need of the present time, to probe into the causes behind academic stress in students, in order to
solve this problem. Often children get neglected in academics because mothers are not able to spend
time with their children or get the help of professionals to teach their children. Mothers are ideal
teachers and informal education given by home is most effective and natural.

KEY VARIABLES AND DEFINITIONS :

Key words : Stress , Working and Non Working mothers , Adjustments , Academic Career.
Stress

Stress is defined as “a state of psychological and physiological imbalance resulting from the
disparity between situational demand and the individual's ability and motivation to meet those
needs”. Also described stress as “the rate of all wear and tear caused by life.”

Stress can be positive or negative: 1. Stress is good when the situation offers an opportunity to a
person to gain something. It acts as a motivator for peak performance. 2. Stress is negative when a
person faces social, physical, organizational and emotional problems.

Academic Career

Academic career is a concept used in Campus Solutions to designate all course work undertaken by a
student at an academic institution

Adjustments

In psychology, adjustment refers to the behavioral process of balancing conflicting needs, or needs

challenged by obstacles in the environment. ... Successful adjustment is crucial to having a high
quality of life.

Working Women:

Working women in the present study shall refer to educated women with educational
qualification as graduation and above and are engaged in any government/semi-government, or
private salaried job.

Non-working Women: Non-working women in the present study shall refer to educated women
with educational qualification as graduation and above but not engaged in any government/semi-
government, and private job.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM :

Study on stress among the children’s of working and non-working mothers in reference to their
academic career and their adjustments to life.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY :
  To study the stress level of the children of working mothers in reference to their
academic stress.
 To study the stress among the children of non-working mothers in reference to their
academic stress.
 To study and compare the stress among the children of working and non-working
mothers in relation to their academic stress.
 To study about the adjustments to life of the children of working and non-working
mothers.

HYPOTHESIS :

 There is no significant difference in academic stress among boys and girls of working
mothers.
 There is no significant difference in academic stress among boys and girls of non-
working mothers.
 There is no significant difference in academic stress among children of working and non-
working mothers.
 There is no significant difference in the adjustments to life for the children of working
and non-working mothers.

UNIVERSE AND SAMPLE:

For this Study, the Universe is Children between the age of 12- 18.Type of sampling used is
Random Sampling. The age of the sample subjects will be ranging from (12-18 years) . An equal
number of Children belonging to working and Non-working mothers are to be selected randomly
from High and Higher secondary schools of Ernakulum District.

TOOLS :

 The tools required for the collection of data are Questioning Method, Interview, Self-
Evaluation Techniques, and Questionnaire.
 To analyze the data, various statistical techniques are used. (descriptive statistics – SD ,
Mean)
CONCLUSION :

The number of working women has been increasing year by year. The increasing number of the
women in the work force has created number of problems to their children. The women who are in
full time jobs which very often necessitates staying away from their families for long hours during
the day create more disturbances for their children. No-doubt, a child spends his maximum time with
his mother at home. She understands the needs of her child in the best way. The present study will
be helpful for mothers to find solutions to every problem that can cause stress in children so as to
avoid the stressful situations. It will help the teachers in understanding the child psychology so that
they will not overburden the students with work, further minimizing the academic stress.

REFERENCE :

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333235637_Children_of_Working_and_Non-
working_Mothers_-their_stress_and_coping_strategies
 http://www.educationjournal.org/download/504/3-1-97-509.pdf