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A study on social alienation among adolescents

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 The Pharma Innovation Journal 2019; 8(4): 534-537

ISSN (E): 2277- 7695

ISSN (P): 2349-8242
NAAS Rating: 5.03 A study on social alienation among adolescents
TPI 2019; 8(4): 534-537
© 2019 TPI
www.thepharmajournal.com
Received: 16-02-2019
J Navitha and Dr. P Sreedevi
Accepted: 20-03-2019
Abstract
J Navitha Adolescence is a transition period from childhood to adult life. During this age many changes were takes
M.Sc, Department of Human place like increased peer relations, autonomy and striving for Social identity and more sensitive to social
Development and Family issues. Research review revealed that social alienation was observed among (53%) of adolescents and
Studies, College of Home Science, young adults in the age range of 18-34 years were often felt alone and depressed. Adolescents who were
Hyderabad, Telangana, India
suffering with social alienation, they are physically present but mentally away from the external world
and they exhibit aggressiveness and deviant behaviours. Hence, an attempt was made to study the Social
Dr. P Sreedevi
Assistant Professor, Department Alienation among Adolescents. Ex-post facto research design was used for the study. A sample of 60
of Human Development and Adolescents in the age range of 16-21 years studying in different educational disciplines like
Family studies, College of Home Engineering, Agricultural and Allied sciences were selected by purposive random sampling method from
Science, Hyderabad, Telangana, Hyderabad, Telangana state. Social alienation scale by Jessor and Jessor was used to measure the Social
India alienation status. Frequencies, Percentages and Regression were used to analyze the data. The findings
revealed that majority of (88%) were suffering with high level of Social Alienation in which adolescent
boys were high compared to girls. Adolescents who are victims of bullying in early years experienced
high social alienation and demographic profiles like Age and Income levels or Socio economic status has
a significant influence on social alienation.

Keywords: Social alienation, adolescence, reasons for social alienation, significance of social alienation

Introduction
Adolescence is a transitional period in which there are considerable changes in Physical,
Social and Psychological. It is a crucial period, where the relationships with peers, family, and
society undergo distinct changes. Peer influence, social identity, self esteem, intimate
friendships and friendships with opposite sex increased in this period and parental influences
reduces. According to modern sociologists, Hajda (1961) defined alienation as “an individual
feeling of uneasiness or discomfort which reflects a self exclusion from social and cultural
participation. Another meaning of Social Alienation is separation, exclusion or isolation and
people are withdrawal or lack of involvement in community activities. It is "a condition
in social relationships reflected by a low degree of integration or common values and a high
degree of distance or isolation between individuals, or between an individual and a group of
people in a community or work environment." And it occurs when a person withdraws or
becomes isolated from their environment or from other people. According to Williams (2001),
weak bonds with particularly positive social institutions such as school, family and peers or
exclusion from these social institutions create a serious threat to basic human needs such as
belongingness, self-respect, self-control and meaningful existence. Simon Dixon, study
revealed that social alienation was observed among (53%) of adolescents and young adults in
the age range of 18-34 years were often felt alone and depressed. This is because of
Modernization and also common reasons were found to be lack of attachment with Parent or
caregivers, sudden change in their comfort zone, lack of friendly environment, bullying, lack
of interactions with friends and extreme involvement with the social media. Social alienation
may leads to aggressive behaviors, high level of loneliness, isolation and resentment. So the
present study was taken up to study Social alienation status among Adolescents which intern
helps to improve mental health by minimizing health risks associated with social alienation.

Objectives
Correspondence 1. To study the status of social alienation among adolescents
J Navitha 2. To find out the reasons of social alienation
M.Sc, Department of Human 3. To study the contributing factors of Social Alienation.
Development and Family
Studies, College of Home Science,
Hyderabad, Telangana, India
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Materials and Methods Table 1.1: Relationship Variables

Based upon the nature of the research problem and objectives Respondents (N= 60)
of the present study, Ex-post facto research design was used S. No Variables
N %
for the study. The sample was selected from different 1 No. of Close friends
educational disciplines like Engineering, Agricultural and One 4 7%
Allied sciences of Hyderabad, Telangana state. The sample Two 3 5%
comprises of sixty adolescents in the age range of 16-21years Three –five 12 20%
includes 30 boys from Agriculture and Engineering and 30 More than five 41 68%
girls from Allied sciences and Engineering. A schedule was 2 Conflicts with Friends
designed to collect general profile of adolescents and reasons Frequently 5 8%
for social alienation. Social Alienation Scale by Jessor and Some times 32 54%
Jessor, Smart Phone Addiction Scale (SAS) by Kwon and No 23 38%
Kim, were also used to collect data. Frequencies, percentages 3 Victims of Bullying by Peers in Early Years
and Regression were used to analyze the data. Yes 18 30%
Results and Discussion No 42 70%
4 Opinion on Parenting styles
Table 1: Demographic profile of Adolescents Permissive 2 3%
Democratic 46 77%
Respondents (N= 60) Authoritarian 12 20%
S. No Variables
N % 5 Perception related to their parental attachment
1 Age Secure 22 36.7%
16-17 years 10 17%
Anxious 12 20%
18-19 years 35 58%
Avoidant 26 43.3%
20-21 years 15 25%
6 Rating about their Intimacy with friends
2 Income Levels
Low 29 48% High 26 43.3%
Middle 14 23% Medium 8 13.4%
High 17 29% Low 26 43.3%
3 Type of Family
Nuclear 59 98% From the above table it was observed that nearly seventy
Joint 1 2% (68%) of respondents had more than five close friends, more
4 Residence than half (54%) of the respondents were having conflicts with
Urban 34 57% friends, more than one fourth (30%) of the respondents
Rural 25 42% reported that they were victims of bullying by peers in their
Tribal 1 1% early years. Majority of (77%) respondents felt that their
parents are using democratic parenting style followed by
From the above table, it was observed that nearly sixty (58%)
authoritarian and permissive disciplinary methods where as
percent of the adolescents are in the age range 18-19 years,
most of (98%) them were from nuclear families, nearly fifty forty three percent of the respondents reported an avoidant
(48%) them belongs to low income groups. The findings were attachment with their parents due to cold and rejecting
on par with the study Tome. G, et al. (2016) [6] who reported behavior of parents and forty three percent of the Adolescents
that low socio economic status (SES) had a higher probability felt high Intimacy with friends and similar percent felt low
of alienation. More than half of (57%) the respondents were intimacy with their friends followed by medium level of
from urban background. intimate relations.

Fig 1: Status of Social Alienation among Adolescents

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From the above table the results showed that majority (88%) are slight gender differences in social alienation levels.
of the adolescents were felt high level of social alienation, Adolescent boys were experiencing social alienation more
where as few (12%) of respondents were reported low level of when compare to adolescent girls. A study by Tome. G, et.al
social alienation. None of them reported either very high or (2016) [6] reported that Boys have higher (1.6) probability to
very low social alienation. It was interested to note that there feel social isolation than girls.

Table 2: Reasons for Social Alienation

Agree Undecided Disagree
S. No Reasons for Social Alienation
N (%) N (%) N (%)
1 Lack of Attachment with parents or Care givers 26 43.3% 12 20% 22 36.7%
2 Sudden Changes in Comfort Zone 33 55% 9 15% 18 30%
3 Peer victimization like bullying 33 55% 11 18.3% 16 26.7%
4 Lack of interactions with friends 25 41.7% 8 13.3% 27 45%
5 Lack of friendly environment 20 33.5% 7 11.5% 33 55%
High Moderate Low
6 Addicted to Smart phone N (%) N (%) N (%)
10 16.7% 45 75% 5 8.3%

From the above table on reasons for social alienation among Table 3: Model Summary of selected independent variables
adolescents, the results showed that more than half (55%) of (Reasons) and dependent variable i.e. social alienation
the respondents were agreed that they faced bullying, sudden Model Summary
changes in comfort zone which means ones activities and R Adjusted R Std. Error of
their behaviors are not well like routine, that maximizes stress Model R
Square Square the Estimate
and risk. Forty three percent agreed lack of attachment with 1 .448a .201 .110 4.20502
parents or care givers. The similar findings were found by
Tome. G, et.al (2016) [6] noticed that poorer relationship with The R value shows the correlation between the dependent
the parents have higher (10.5) probability of being alienated variable social alienation and independent variables such as
among adolescents. More than forty (41.7%) of the lack of attachment with parents, sudden changes in their
respondents were agreed lack of interactions with friends comfort zone, bullying victimization by peers in early years,
were major reasons for social alienation followed by lack of lack of interactions with friends, lack of friendly environment
friendly environment leads them to social alienation. The and smart phone addiction. The R value of 0.44 indicates
similar findings were found by Yi Zhu, (2013) reported that average relation of social alienation with the stated reasons.
rejection by the classmates which leads to alienation. The R2 Square value indicates that the influence of
It is important to notice that majority (75%) of the adolescents independent variables on dependent variable. The value
are moderately addicted to smart phones followed by high shows (20%) influence of the total independent variables on
addiction (16.7%) which was also an important reason for dependent variable i.e. social alienation and thus the present
social alienation. Turkle. S, (2017) found that heavy usage of study explored 20% of contributing variables for social
social media can exacerbate or intensify the feelings of social alienation and the remaining need to be explored.
isolation.
Table 4: ANOVA of selected independent variables (Reasons) and dependent variable i.e. social alienation
Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.
Regression 235.425 6 39.238 2.219 .05
1 Residual 937.158 53 17.682
Total 1172.583 59

The ANOVA table states that the effect of independent variable as the calculated f value was significant at 0.05 level.
variables to be significantly influencing the dependent

Table 5: Coefficients of Selected independent variables (Reasons) and dependent variable i.e. social alienation
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
Model T Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
Smart phone Addiction 6.414E-005 .057 .000 .001 .999
Lack of attachment with parents .834 .502 .244 1.662 .102
Sudden changes in comfort zone 1.009 .629 .254 1.604 .115
Peer victimization like bullying 2.038 .674 .465 3.022 .004**
Lack of interactions with friends .846 .643 .232 1.316 .194
Lack of friendly environment .456 .593 .126 .769 .445
**p<0.01 level of significance

From the above table the regression coefficient indicates that years was found to have significant influence on social
of all the reasons only victimization bullying by peers in early alienation at 0.01 significance level.

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The Pharma Innovation Journal

Table 6: Model Summary of selected independent variables shows 15% influence of independent variables on dependent
(Demographic factors) influencing social alienation variable.
Model Summary
R Adjusted R Std. Error of the Table 7: ANOVA of selected independent variables (Demographic
Model R factors) and dependent variable i.e. social alienation.
Square Square Estimate
1 .398a .159 .081 4.27426 Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.
Regression 186.043 5 37.209 2.037 .088b
The R value gives the correlation between social alienation 1 Residual 986.540 54 18.269
and demographic factors like age, gender, Income levels or Total 1172.583 59
socio economic status, Type of family and Residence which is
.398. It can be inferred that the relationship between the The ANOVA shows that the influence of selected
dependent and independent variables as average. The r square demographic variables was not significant.

Table 8: Coefficients of Selected independent variables (Demographic factors) and dependent variable i.e. social alienation
Coefficientsa
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
Model T Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
Age 2.301 1.010 .333 2.279 .027*
Income groups or Socio economic status 1.935 .887 .373 2.182 .033*
Type of Family 4.670 3.187 .190 1.465 .149
Residence 1.076 1.387 .129 .776 .441
Gender .578 1.186 .065 .487 .628
*p<0.05 level of significance

Regression Coefficients in the above table indicates that age 1-900685-79-5.

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