Impact Of Social Well-Being On Academic Performance Of Students

Abstract

Starting university can be compared to starting a whole new chapter of life. Whenever a student leaves his/her home for college, a new journey is bound to begin. This journey’s main twists and turns are centered around self-discovery and self-reliance, which in turn shape up the student`s general outlook on the dynamics of life. A good number of students are not usually prepared for the possible challenges that university life has to offer, hence causing them to get overwhelmed and makes it difficult for them to adjust to this new life. From living alone to trying to balance between doing daily chores and studying among other activities, university life can be stressful for some students which can have a negative impact on their well-being. Despite the elusive and overarching nature of well-being, its significance with respect to education is well established in the literature. Students’ positive and satisfying life-experiences are expected to flourish as their well-being increases, and student’s well-being influences all main domains of their further lives including academic performance. With the emergence of positive psychology, the last few decades have witnessed a rapid increase in research on students’ well-being. The literature supports the notion that well-being improves academic achievement and is a predictor of career success; however, few rigorous experimental studies on this effect are available and further experimental and intervention studies are needed. Keeping this in view the objective of present study was to examine the impact of social well-being on the academic performance of students of different states of India studying in AMU. For the same, 203 students of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh were asked to respond on two questionnaires namely, the social well-being scale and academic performance scale. Findings revealed the significant positive relationship of social well-being with academic performance i.e., as the social well-being of the students was high, their academic performance was also high. Furthermore, social well-being was found to be a significant predictor of academic performance of the students. It was concluded that social well-being particularly social integration and social contribution aspects of educational life are important contributors to overall academic achievement of students, as they derive much of their sense of self-worth from social inclusion and evaluations of their peers and important adults.