Maternal Work Status and Emotional Competence of Adolescents

Abstract

The relationship between maternal employment and adolescent development is enormously complex. Sometimes it is perceived that the dual role of the working mother influences the emotional aspect of the child which hampers the adolescent period of life. Therefore, present investigation was designed to explore the impact of maternal work status on emotional competence amongst adolescents. A two group design was adopted in the present study. Group I comprised of adolescents of working mothers. Group II consisted of adolescents of non-working mothers. Each group consisted of 150 subjects (75 males and 75 females) with an age range of 15-18 years. Emotional competence Scale was administered on these 300 adolescent students. Data was analyzed by using t- test. The results of the study showed that adolescents of working mothers have significantly higher emotional competence than adolescents of non-working mothers. Regarding the five competencies of emotional competence scale, adolescents of the working mothers scored significantly higher on ability to function with emotions, ability to cope with problem emotions and encouragement of positive emotions than their counterparts. No significant difference was found on adequate depth of feeling and adequate expression and control of emotions. Further no significant gender differences were observed.