Difference in Social Anxiety among Students of Single-sex and Co-Education Schools

The purpose of the study was to understand how the classroom environment, in terms of student gender composition affects social anxiety among school students in an urban Indian context. The study aimed to examine the difference in levels of social anxiety, between students of single-sex and co-education schools. A comparative quantitative research design was adopted for this study. Convenient sampling technique was used to select the sample. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (Liebowitz, 1987) was administered to a total of 165 students (39 girls from co-education schools, 42 girls from all-girls schools, 38 boys from co-education schools and 46 boys from all-boys schools) of class IX and X across single-sex and co-education schools in Bangalore, Karnataka. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was done to identify differences in social anxiety among the four groups, which revealed that girls of co-education schools had significantly higher social anxiety than boys of single-sex schools. The difference among other student groups was not statistically significant. The findings indicate that boys are comfortable in an all-boys schools while girls in co-education school experience high social anxiety. Implications of the study, relevant to the education system are discussed.