Author(s): Debasree Sadhukhan and Paromita Ghosh

Abstract:
The study aimed to find the influence, if any, of higher secondary students’ gender on psychosocial aspects of school environment as perceived by them. Disagreement among investigators makes it an animated area of research. Stratified random sampling was used for selecting a sample of 600 higher secondary students (300 girls; 300 boys) aged 16 to 19 years belonging to middle socio-economic status families of Kolkata. School Environment Inventory (Misra, 2002) was used to assess students’ perception of school environment. Socio-Economic Status Scale (Meenakshi, 2004) was administered to ascertain the socio- economic status of students for controlling it. Computation of Mean, Standard Deviation and One-Way ANOVA comprised data analysis. Results indicated significant influence of participants’ gender on some dimensions of perceived school environment. Descriptive statistics revealed that participating girls perceived school environment as more creatively stimulating, cognitively encouraging, accepting, controlling but less rejecting than boys did. Girls and boys did not differ significantly in perception of permissiveness at school. So, opinions of gender-groups must be sought and heeded to bring about beneficial changes in the school setting.