International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies

Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Rural Adolescents: The Bangladeshi Example from a Gendered Perspective

2025-09-14T00:53:35+03:00

Adolescent emotional and behavioral problems are highly prevalent yet often stigmatized. Within Bangladesh's male-dominated societal context, where traditional and religious norms disproportionately restrict women, gender becomes a pivotal factor for psychological well-being. This study therefore employs a gender-specific lens to explore these problems among secondary school students, examining their prevalence and variation across gender. This study draws upon data from the first author’s master's thesis. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional design, a survey was administered to 320 eighth-grade adolescents (143 boys, 177 girls) from five co-educational rural secondary schools across Bangladesh, selected via convenience sampling. Problem behaviors were assessed using a self-reported Bengali adaptation of Goodman and Mullick's (2000) Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The results indicated that girls reported significantly higher levels of overall problem behavior than boys. This difference was particularly pronounced in the domains of emotional symptoms and hyperactive-inattentive behaviors. The results underscore the critical importance of developing targeted support programs that address the distinct challenges faced by female adolescents.

The Relationship between Teachers' Work Engagement and Classroom Management Styles

2025-09-28T04:04:08+03:00

This study reveals the levels of work engagement and the adoption of classroom management styles among physical education and sports teachers, investigates the association between these two variables, and compares them by demographics. To this end, the study, grounded in a quantitative paradigm, employed descriptive, correlational, and causal-comparative designs. The study population includes 429 physical education and sports teachers working in the central district of Batman, while the sample comprises 202 teachers conveniently selected from this population. Data were collected using a "Personal Information Form," the "Engaged Teacher Scale," and the "Classroom Management Styles Scale." Before data analysis, the distribution was evaluated, and the findings showed that it did not follow a normal distribution. Thus, outliers were identified and removed, resulting in the exclusion of data from nine participants. Subsequent analyses were conducted on data from 193 participants. The findings can be summarized as follows: The most frequently adopted classroom management style among physical education and sports teachers was the "protective" style, while the least adopted was the “laissez-faire” style. Furthermore, the findings revealed high levels of work engagement among the participants. Statistically significant but very low positive correlations were identified between the adoption of the protective classroom management style and emotional engagement, cognitive engagement, and overall work engagement, as well as between social engagement with students and the adoption of the democratic classroom management style. Comparisons based on demographic variables indicated that gender significantly affected emotional engagement, educational level significantly influenced emotional, cognitive, and overall work engagement, and marital status impacted the adoption level of the autocratic classroom management style. The findings were discussed in relation to the existing literature, and several recommendations were made based on the results.

Evaluation of Psychometric Properties of Tests used in Educational Research

2025-10-22T19:30:34+03:00

It is imperative to assess psychometric parameters of tests and items by methodologically sound approaches and finding relationships among the psychometric qualities. The paper describes methods of computations of psychometric parameters of MCQ test and items under classical test theory, finds relationships among theoretically defined test reliability with factorial validity (FV) and separately with discriminating and difficulty values of test and items considering the entire data. Finding r_(tt(theoretical)) from a single administration offers significant benefits like computation of test error variance; testingH_0: r_(tt(theoretical))=1; finding battery reliability, estimation of true scores and its confidence interval. Relationships of r_(tt(theoretical)) derived with FV of standardized scores (〖FV〗_(Z-scores)), test discriminating value (〖Disc〗_T), Cronbach alpha in terms of item discriminating value 〖(Disc〗_i) and 〖Disc〗_T, Item reliability as function of 〖Diff〗_i and 〖Disc〗_T, alpha using PCA results (α_PCA) with 〖FV〗_(Z-scores). The point of inflection of the negatively slopped reliability - discriminating value curve gives 〖Disc〗_T for which test reliability is optimal; Common point of 〖Disc〗_iand 〖Diff〗_i curves could be used in item deletions to improve test reliability.