Students' behaviour problems : an attempt to understand the causes

Abstract

A path analysis study was carried out to examine the effects of students ' selfconcept and other background variables of family environment, family socio-economic status and students' intelligence on their behaviour problems. Seven hundred and twenty-three form three students were randomly selected for the study based on their background variables mentioned above. The result shows that students' academic and non-academic self-concept were significantl y correlated with their behaviour problems. The non-academic self-concept was a better predictor of behaviour problems as compared to the academic self-concept. However , students' intelligen ce was found to be the best predictor of their behaviour problems among the independ ent variables under study . The role of intelligence and students family environment was also import ant as they have an indirect effect on their behaviour problem s through the non-academic self-concept. The results of the study have important implications on the role of parents, educators and administrators in checking student behaviour problems.