EXECUTIVE FUNCTION AND ACADEMIC SUCCESS OF TRIBAL ADOLESCENTS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

The major intent of the study was to identify the relationship between executive function and academic success of tribal adolescents belonging to the Jharkhand state of India and to examine the relationship between academic success and the executive function of tribal adolescent boys and girls separately and as a whole. The study comes under survey design of descriptive type of research. The investigator collected data from 378 students from different districts of Jharkhand using a stratified sampling technique. The data were collected by using a standardized scale on executive function, and for academic success, 10th-grade adolescents' academic scores on their 9th-grade examinations were taken into consideration. The results of the study revealed that the relationship between executive function and academic success of tribal adolescents of Jharkhand is significantly positive but negligible. However, the study also revealed that the academic success of adolescents is not significantly related to either cognitive flexibility or the inhibition control component of executive function, but the dimension of working memory has a significant relationship with academic success. Further, the study also shows that there is a positive relationship between executive function and academic success among tribal adolescent boys, but the reverse result was reported in the case of the girls. Therefore, it can be recommended that the teachers are expected to focus on different dimensions of executive function i.e. cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibition control to exert a healthy lifestyle among the students that is expected to enhance the executive function, academic success, and the overall well-being.