PARTICIPANTS
In section 5.3 the influence of parenting style on students’ university adjustment was discussed in line with the previous research findings, and I came to the conclusion that parenting style influences students’ university adjustment, and is therefore consistent with most previous research findings. In the following section, emphasis is placed on checking whether a statistically significant mean difference existed in the TEI score and adjustment to the university score by considering the gender of the research participants as a factor.
5.4.1 Gender difference as a function of TEI
The results indicated, in line with one of the objectives, that there is a statistically significant difference in TEI score between male and female first year university students t (436.897) = .350, *p < .05, homogeneity of variance not assumed. In the results, the TEI mean score for male first year university students was slightly higher (M = 3.3826, SD = .36288) than that of the female university students in their first year (M = 3.3718, SD = .29669).
The finding that TEI differs by gender is consistent with some previous ones: for instance, a study on TEI revealed gender differences, but contrary to the present result, girls scored higher than boys (Downey et al., 2008; Mavroveli et al., 2008). Similarly, a study by Mikolajczak et al. (2007) reported that with the exception of the factor well-being, their findings revealed
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significant gender differences; i.e. women scored significantly higher on emotionality, whereas men scored significantly higher on self-control and sociability. Again, in agreement with the present result is a study in the global TEI score, in which men’s scores were found to be higher than women’s (Mikolajczak et al., 2007), which once more is consistent with the finding obtained with the English version of the TEIQue (Petrides & Furnham,2000).
As with the present study, Yelkikalan et al. (2012) revealed that EI score differs with gender: that men have higher averages in wellbeing, self-control and sociability factors and this difference is statistically significant (*p<.01) in the wellbeing and sociability factors. Similarly, research by (Austin et al., 2005; Harrod & Scheer, 2005) discovered that the levels of EI vary depending on the gender, but their research results are different from those of Yelkikalan et al. (2012) in that theirs revealed that female students have an overall higher level of EI in comparison to the male students.
Once more the present finding that TEI differs as a function of gender is inconsistent with a sample of previous findings. For instance, Poulou (2010) underscored that irrespective of the measurement tool used, there were no significant differences between gender and TEI. Similarly, a study by Antoniou et al. (2016) on the relationship between TEI and vocational interests of Greek 10th and 11th grade students indicated that TEI was independent of the demographic variable gender.
To conclude, the influence of gender on TEI as well as on specific scores between males and females on TEI is mixed, though many previous research findings and that of the present one concur that gender has an influence on TEI. It is therefore cautiously concluded that TEI TEIQue scores seem influenced by gender. Overall, further studies on TEI are needed to confirm the different observed results across the present as well as the previous findings.
5.4.2 Gender difference as a function of adjustment level
The issue of whether gender does influence TEI was reported in the sub-section of 5.4.1 and the present result was to some extent in agreement with many of the previous research findings; however, not with all. This section carried out a discussion on ‘to what level is the present result in agreement with the previous ones on whether adjustment score varies with gender.
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Gender differences on adjustment score were tested through an independent sample T- test. The T-test did not reveal significant mean differences on adjustment score in between female and male first year university students: the males’ adjustment score was (M = 3.4674, SD = .40854) while females had (M = 3.5135, SD = .38184). This difference was not significant t (462) = -1.217, p> .05. The finding that adjustment to university life is not significantly different between male and female first year university students in the present study is consistent with previous findings (Clinciu, 2013; Kyalo, 2011; Salami, 2011; Sharma & Kermane, 2015). More importantly, Al-khatib et al. (2012) indicated that adjustment to college life is not based on gender, study level, college or interaction between them. Rather, it was related to other factors such as future anxiety about employment after finishing university, or emotional instability, or other problems related to academic achievement.
Moreover, a study by Wang and Zhang (2015) indicated that there was no significant difference between male and female college students with regard to adaptability. Even when taking into account the moderating effects of gender on the relationship between EI and social adjustment and EI and academic adjustment (Ishak et al., 2011), the result suggested that gender was not an important moderating factor on the relationship between these research variables. On the other hand, contrary to the present study, male students adapted to the new university environment better than their female counterparts (Abdullah et al., 2009; Winter & Yaffe, 2000; Enochs & Roland, 2006) because separation anxiety seemed to affect females more than male students (Raj, 2012); thus, males tend to isolate themselves and escape, whereas females are more likely to seek emotional assistance (Enochs & Roland, 2006), as mentioned earlier.
To conclude, the present research is sufficiently in agreement with almost all the previous findings included in the literature consulted in this thesis: that adjustment is not a function of gender. However, the absence of gender differences in a construct’s mean does not signify that there is no individual difference with regard to adjustment to university life.