Creativity and Self Concept of Secondary School Students as Function of Gender, Academic Achievement and Socio-Economic Status

Abstract

The present study designed to investigate the creativity and self concept of secondary school students of Bangladesh with reference to gender, academic achievement and socio-economic status. Towards this end, the study was conducted on 320 secondary school students (160 Boys and 160 girls) selected purposively from Rajshahi City, Bangladesh. In light of the review of literature, it was hypothesized that 1) boys would possess more creative abilities and higher self concept than girls (H1), 2) high achiever students would possess more creative abilities and higher self concept than low achiever students (H2), 3) the respondents of upper middle SES would possess more creative abilities and higher self concept than the respondents belong to lower middle SES (H3), 4) there would be a significant positive relationship between creativity and self concept of secondary school students (H4), 5) secondary school students’ creativity can be predicted by their self concept (H5), 6) secondary school students’ creativity can be predicted by different dimensions of self concept. (H6) and 7) secondary school students’ self concept can be predicted by different dimensions of creativity. (H7). Following standard procedures, the measuring instruments used in this study were (i) Demographic and Personal Information Sheet, (ii) ‘Creativity Scale’ developed by the researcher (iii) ‘Self Concept Scale’ developed by the researcher. Obtained data were analyzed through mean, SD, t-value, correlation coefficients and regression analyses. Results of the study provided confirmation to the hypotheses. t-value indicated that secondary school students’ creativity and self concept significantly differed with reference to academic achievement and socioeconomic status but with reference to gender, only the self concept of secondary school students significantly differed. Correlation coefficients indicated that secondary school students’ creativity was significantly positively associated with their self concept. The value of adjusted R2 through regression analyses revealed that creativity was one of the strongest predictors to explain 71.9% variance of self concept of secondary school students. Standardized Beta (b) coefficients also showed that the increases of 1 standard deviation unit in creativity, increases .849 standard deviation unit in self concept. Furthermore, part correlation coefficient also indicated that the unique contribution of ‘creativity’ to explain the variance in self concept of secondary school students was 72.08%. The value of Adjusted R2 through regression analysis also revealed that as predictor variables, physical self concept explained 48.5%, educational self concept explained 57.6%, scholastic competence explained 58.3%, moral self concept explained 56.7%, social self concept explained 58.0% and global self worth explained 59.4% variances of criterion variable or creativity. Thus, different dimensions of self concept (i.e. physical self concept, educational self concept, scholastic competence, moral self concept, social self concept and global self worth) were stronger predictors to explain secondary school students’ creativity. Again as predictor variables, artistry explained 55.4%, intellectuality explained 60.5%, disciplined imagination explained 55.9%, self strength explained 49.9%, inquisitiveness explained 49.9% and environmental sensitivity explained 48.4% variances of criterion variable or self concept. Thus, different dimensions of creativity (i.e. artistry, intellectuality, disciplined imagination, self strength, inquisitiveness and environmental sensitivity) were stronger predictors to explain secondary school students’ self concept.