Effect of Air Pollution on Aggression, Anxiety and Academic Achievement of School Children

Abstract

The present study is an empirical investigation into the effect of air pollution on aggression, anxiety and academic achievement of 1724 secondary school children (of classes VIII, IX & X and of 12 to 15 years of age) in Dhaka city. Two sample groups of children - one (N=848) from high air polluted area and the other (N=876) from low air polluted area ( according to the report of the Department of Environment-Do£, Bangladesh) were selected. Three separate scales - The Air pollution Scale for Children (APSC) developed by the researcher himself, separate Bengali versions of anxiety and aggression scales from the Personality Inventory for Children (PI C­Wirt, et al, 1990) were used. APSC was administered on two groups of children and the aggression scale and the anxiety scale were used on the parents of the children. The results of annual examination of the children for two consecutive years were used as their academic achievement. It was hypothesized that children group affected with high air pollution (HAG) would show (a) higher aggression, (b) higher anxiety and ( c) low academic achievement than children group who are less affected with air pollution (LAG). Result analyzed through t-test confirmed the three hypotheses.