Gender Differences in Corporal Punishment, Academic Self-Efficacy and Drop-Out in Secondary School Students

Abstract

The objective of the present research was to find out gender differences in corporal punishment, academic self-efficacy and drop-out in secondary school students. The research design used for the study was correlation design. By using purposive sampling technique a sample of 250 (33%) students of 13-18 (M= 15.59, SD= 1.62) years was recruited from 741 public secondary schools of Lahore city. The Demographic information sheet, Physical Punishment Questionnaire (Malik, 2014), Academic Self-efficacy Scale (Gafoor & Ashraf, 2006) and school record for drop-out was used for the assessment of the participants. The data were collected from different public secondary school students and were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Independent sample t-test) through IBM SPSS. The findings of the study revealed that corporal punishment showed a positive relationship with drop-out. Boys were found to expose more to corporal punishment and had higher drop-out than the girls. Moreover, girls were higher in academic self-efficacy than the boys. The outcomes of the study are beneficial for the clinical and counseling psychologists and teachers as well as for the parents to comprehend the problems of the students and to resolve their issues.