72 Chapter – III Methodology
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Chapter – III
Methodology
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3.1 Introduction
Chapter – III Methodology
3.2 Aim of the Study
3.3 Objectives of the Study
3.4 Hypotheses
3.5 Sample
3.6 Tools
3.6.1 Parenting Style and Dimension Questionnaire (PSDQ)
3.6.2 Parental Involvement Scale (PIS)
3.6.3 Socio-Economic Status Scale (SESS)
3.6.4 Academic Performance
3.7 Variables
3.7.1 Independent Variables
3.7.2 Dependant Variables
3.8 Operational Definitions
3.8.1 Parenting
3.8.2 Parenting Styles
3.8.3 Authoritative Parenting
3.8.4 Authoritarian Parenting
3.8.5 Permissive Parenting
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3.8.6 Parental Involvement
3.8.7 Home Involvement
3.8.8 School Involvement
3.8.9 Psychological Autonomy
3.8.10 Socio-Economic Status
3.9 Design
3.10 Procedure
3.11 Statistical Inference of Data
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3.1 Introduction
Every science is based on its research methodology. Social science
uses different methodology for different raising problems. The result of
the research is based on the accuracy of the research methodology. The
researcher can get the valid results only when the methodology is valid.
In the present era nothing is possible without planning. The human being
becomes more active to find new facts and truth. So it is important to do
perfect research planning which saves time, money and energy. It is easy
to understand many things with common sense but perhaps that
knowledge is biased and incomplete, so scientific research is necessary.
In this developing era, research is very important step for rapid
development.
In common parlance research refers to a search for knowledge.
Research is a careful investigation or inquiry especially through search
for facts in any branch of knowledge. (Oxford Learner’s Dictionary)
According to Redman and Mory Research is a systematized effort to gain
new knowledge.
The purpose of the present investigation was to study the effect of
area, socio-economic status and parent’s education on the development of
parenting styles and parental involvement and to determine how specific
parenting style and parental involvement can affect child’s academic
performance.
The variables selected for the investigation had various
dimensions. The dimensions for parenting styles were authoritative,
authoritarian and permissive. Parental involvement comprised home,
school and psychology autonomy.
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Based on the review of the literature and also keeping in the view
the various dimensions, the following objectives and hypotheses were
formulated.
3.2 Aim of the Study
Parent’s residential area, their education and socio-economic status
play crucial role in the development of various parenting styles and
parental involvement. The main aim of the present study is to investigate
the effect of area, socio-economic status and parent’s education on the
development of parenting styles and parental involvement and to
determine how specific parenting style and parental involvement can
affect child’s academic performance.
3.3 Objectives of the Study
The major objectives of the study were as follow:
1. To determine the role parent’s education on the development of
specific parenting styles.
2. To study the impact of Socio-Economic status on the development
of parenting styles.
3. To find out the significant role of area on the development on
certain parenting styles.
4. To study the effect of parent’s education on the level of parental
involvement.
5. To examine and analyze the impact of Socio-Economic –Status in
the development of parental involvement.
6. To find out the significant role of area for the development of
parental involvement.
7. To find out correlation between particular parenting style and
parental involvement.
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8. To find out the effect of various parenting styles on children’s
academic performance.
9. To find out the effect of parental involvement on children’s
academic performance.
3.4 Hypotheses
The hypotheses of the study were as follow.
1. There will be no significant difference among various groups of
parents having certain educational level on authoritative parenting
style.
2. There will be no significant difference among various group
parents having certain socio-economic status on authoritative
parenting style.
3. There will be no significant difference between urban and rural
parents on authoritative parenting style.
4. There will be no significant difference among various interactions
of parental education, SES and area with regard to authoritative
parenting style.
5. There will be no significant difference among various groups of
parents having certain educational level on authoritarian parenting
style.
6. There will be no significant difference among various group
parents having certain socio-economic status on authoritarian
parenting style.
7. There will be no significant difference between urban and rural
parents on authoritarian parenting style.
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8. There will be no significant difference among various interactions
of parental education, SES and area with regard to authoritarian
parenting style.
9. There will be no significant difference among various groups of
parents having certain educational level on permissive parenting
style.
10. There will be no significant difference among various group
parents having certain socio-economic status on permissive
parenting style.
11. There will be no significant difference between urban and rural
parents on permissive parenting style.
12. There will be no significant difference among various interactions
of parental education, SES and area with regard to permissive
parenting style.
13. There will be no significant difference among various groups of
parents having certain educational level on parent’s home
involvement.
14. There will be no significant difference among various group
parents having certain socio-economic status on parent’s home
involvement.
15. There will be no significant difference between urban and rural
parents on parent’s home involvement.
16. There will be no significant difference among various interactions
of parental education, SES and area with regard to parent’s home
involvement.
17. There will be no significant difference among various groups of
parents having certain educational level on parent’s school
involvement.
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18. There will be no significant difference among various group
parents having certain socio-economic status on parent’s school
involvement.
19. There will be no significant difference between urban and rural
parents on parent’s school involvement.
20. There will be no significant difference among various interactions
of parental education, SES and area with regard to parent’s school
involvement.
21. There will be no significant difference among various groups of
parents having certain educational level on parent’s psychological
autonomy.
22. There will be no significant difference among various group
parents having certain socio-economic status on parent’s
psychological autonomy.
23. There will be no significant difference between urban and rural
parents on parent’s psychological autonomy.
24. There will be no significant difference among various interactions
of parental education, SES and area with regard to parent’s
psychological autonomy.
25. There will be no significant difference among various groups of
parents having certain educational level on parent’s total
involvement.
26. There will be no significant difference among various group
parents having certain socio-economic status on parent’s total
involvement.
27. There will be no significant difference between urban and rural
parents on parent’s total involvement.
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28. There will be no significant difference among various interactions
of parental education, SES and area with regard to parent’s total
involvement.
29. There will be no correlation between particular parenting style and
parental involvement.
30. There will be no correlation between various parenting styles and
children’s academic performance.
31. There will be no correlation between various parental involvements
and children’s academic performance.
3.5 Sample
It is not easy to collect the data from the wide geographic area so
researcher peek the representative sample and collect the data. This
representative sample is one in which the distribution of the scores in the
sample closely parallels that of the population. Various techniques have
been devised for obtaining a sample which will be representative of its
population (Garrett, 1969). The present aim of this study is to find out the
effect of demographic factors on the development of parenting styles and
parental involvement and to determine its effect on children’s academic
achievement. As per the aim, in this study, 720 parents whose children
were studying in primary or secondary school were selected by ‘Random
Sampling Method’ through various parts of North Gujarat, Gujarat State,
India. The sample was selected from the age range from 18 to 50 years.
Random Sampling means researcher relies upon the certain method
of selection to provide an unbiased cross selection of the larger group or
population. The criteria for randomness in a sample are met when every
individual in the population or supply has the same chance of being
chosen for the sample and when the selection of one individual or thing in
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no way influences the choice of another. This type of sampling is also
known as ‘Chance Sampling’ or ‘Probability Sampling’ where each and
every item of the population has an equal chance of inclusion of the
sample and each one of the possible samples, in case of finite universe,
has the same probability of being selected. (Kothari, 2011).
3.6 Tools
The following tools were used in this study:
3.6.1 Parenting Style and Dimension Questionnaire (PSDQ)
(Robinson et al, 2001)
To measure various parenting styles, the Gujarati standardized
version of PSDQ (Dhila et al. 2011) was used. Parenting Style and
Dimension Questionnaire (PSDQ) includes 32 items forming three
patterns of Parenting: authoritative, authoritarian and permissive.
Parenting behavior reflected in each item using a 5-point scale anchored
by 1 (never) to 5 (always). This yields a self- report measure and a
spouse- report measure for authoritative, authoritarian and permissive
parenting for mothers and for fathers. The PSDQ is reliable and valid
measure that is widely used by psychologists. The Cronbach’s alpha for
primary factors was found to be 0.91 (authoritative), 0.86 (authoritarian)
and 0.75 (permissive) (Robinson et al., 2001). In this study Gujarati
version of P.S.D.Q. was used for collecting the data. The original English
version of P.S.D.Q is shown in Appendix No. – IV and in the Gujarati
version of P.S.D.Q is shown in Appendix No. – I.
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3.6.2 Parental Involvement Scale (PIS)
3.6.2.1 Development of Parental Involvement Scale (PIS)
The investigator made efforts to get a scale measuring parental
involvement, there was no such scale available in Gujarati language,
investigator aimed first to construct a standardized tool of such parental
involvement scale in Gujarati language. Three major aspects of parental
involvement relevant to present study were selected and items were
constructed. The involvement aspects of this study are as under:
Home Involvement
School Involvement
Psychological Autonomy
An attempt was made by the investigator to construct the items. It
was difficult to task to frame statements or items without having a sound
scientific base. Hence, in the beginning Sentence Completion Test (SCT)
was evolved. It was consisted of fifty incomplete capsules or phrases
pertaining to the selected three involvement aspects as mentioned above
and was given a sample of 200 parents. On the basis of relevancy of their
responses, a list of 115 items was prepared and it was given to the five
experts associated in the field of psychology, sociology and education for
scrutinizing the relevance of the statements and language ambiguity if
any. Forty five items were found irrelevant and hence they were dropped
for the pilot study.
3.6.2.2 Pilot Study
Thus, a pilot form consisting seventy items was prepared on Likert
type scale distributed over three aspects (with minimum twenty five in
each aspect) in all to be responded on a three point scale – Never,
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Sometimes and Always. The pilot form was administered to 300 parents
including both sexes. Out of 300 forms, incomplete forms were dropped
and 275 forms were selected for item analysis.
Two criterion groups i.e. 27% of upper scores and 27% of lower
scores were taken for item analysis. The items depicting discriminative
value of 0.32 and above were finally selected for the Parental
Involvement Scale. In all seventy items showing discrimination between
the two groups were obtained for the final form of the scale of parental
involvement towards the three involvement aspects.
3.6.2.3 Standardization of the Parental Involvement Scale (PIS)
With the adequate process of item analysis, seventy items were
obtained. The final form consisted of twenty seven items out of seventy
items with ten items in two aspects and seven items in one aspect as
shown in Appendix No. – II (Gujarati version) and its English version in
Appendix No. - V. The justification for keeping seven to ten numbers of
items for each involvement aspects, was make it more convenient for the
respondents to avoid factor of fatigue.
To record responses, a record sheet was devised with three
response categories i.e. Never, Sometimes and Always with specific
column boxes at the right side of the form after each items.
(A) Reliability
The final form was administered to 200 parents. The subjects were
asked to indicate their level of involvement on three point scale by
marking tick (√) under the category they think adequate. For favoring
items scoring was from 1 to 3 (Never to Always). The scores for each
subject were computed. Split- half reliability (odd-even method) was
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calculated and after Spearmen- Brown’s correlation was found to be r=
0.81 for the total sore. This demonstrated high reliability of the scale.
(B) Validity
1. Face or Content Validity
This type of validity demonstrated by 100% agreement among the
four judges regarding relevance of the items content to the involvement
being measured by the scale.
2. Concurrent Validity
In order to determine concurrent validity, the scores from each sub-scale
were correlated with the scores on the total scale. These value have been
given in the Table – A. The correlation ranged from 0.82 to 0.90.
Table – A
Correlation of the Sub-Scale Score with Total Scale Scores
Sub- Scales Pearson r
Home Involvement 0.87
School Involvement 0.90
Psychological Autonomy 0.82
3.6.2.4 Scoring Procedure and Interpretation for PIS
The Parental Involvement Scale has been adapted in the form of
Likert’s scale, to be responded of three point scale from Never to Always.
Two of three involvement aspects mentioned earlier, contains ten items
and one aspect contains seven items. The scores obtained by the subject
on all the items of the aspects were totaled up separately for each aspect
for each subject. The total maximum score for each subject will be eighty
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one and the minimum will be twenty seven. For the Home involvement
and School Involvement aspects there are ten items in each aspect and the
maximum score will be thirty and the minimum score will be ten. For the
aspect of Psychological Autonomy there are seven items and the
maximum score will be twenty one and the minimum score will be seven.
Section – I (HI): Home Involvement
This section includes statements regarding parents’ involvement in
the activities of their children at home. Parents’ opinions regarding their
involvement with their children like shopping with children, time
spending on holiday, favorite T.V programs and future plan etc. are
includes in this section. The high score indicates high involvement of
parents in their children’s home activities and low score indicates low
involvement of parents. The maximum score of this section will be thirty
and minimum will be ten.
Section – II (SI): School Involvement
This section includes statements regarding parents’ involvement in the
activities of their children at school. Parents’ opinions regarding their
involvement with their children like attending parents meeting regularly,
knowing the names of teachers, discussion about children’s learning
problems, children’s participation in co curricular activities etc. are
includes in this section. The high score indicates high involvement of
parents in their children’s school activities and low score indicates low
involvement of parents. The maximum score of this section will be thirty
and minimum will be ten.
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Section – III (PA): Psychological Autonomy
This section includes statements about how much freedom for taking
decisions, importance of child’s opinion, and friendliness of parents with
children and discussion about child’s personal problems etc. The high
score indicates high psychological autonomy and low score indicates low
psychological autonomy of parents. The maximum score of this section
will be twenty one and minimum will be seven.
3.6.3 Socio-Economic Status Scale: (SESS) (Bhardwaj, 2006)
Socio-Economic Status was measured with the help of SES scale
constructed by R. L. Bhardwaj (2006). The present scale holds good
equally in both urban and rural areas. The present scale of socio –
Economic Status has been developed for literate people. It can be
administered on illiterate people also, but only by personal interviews.
The scale covers seven areas to provide the desired information regarding
‘Socio-Economic Status’ of the individual in society. It gives us three-
rank-values i.e. area rank value, item rank value and alternative rank
value. With these three rank values we can calculate the proportion rank
scale value and their determined weighted scores for each item. The form
of the sale regarding area, item and alternative can be understood easily
with the help of Table – B.
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Table - B
Showing Area, Items and Alternative on SES Scale
Sr. No. Area Items Alternative
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Social
Family
Education
Profession
Doctors
College Principals
Administrators
Forces (4)
Officers
Lawyers
Teachers
Writers
Business Personnel
Artists
Engineers
Leaders
Managers
Farmers
Miscellaneous
Total Assets
Monthly Income
Caste
2
4
7
15
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
5 for each item
5 for each item
0
-
4
3
3
4
1
1
3
3
5
3
2
3
2
3
4
6
6
3
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The subjects were asked to give responses for father, mother and
him/herself (case) separately in the scale.
3.6.3.1 Reliability and Validity
The reliability of the test of the revised scale has been calculated by
test re-test method. The correlation between two scores was calculated by
Spearman – Brown formula. The following reliability coefficient
correlations were found in seven areas and of the sale as a whole.
Table – C (As Manual)
Showing Reliability Coefficient Correlation of SES Scale
Sr. No. Area
Coefficient of Correlation
Original Scale
(N = 100) Revised Scale
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Family
Social
Education
Profession
Total assets
Monthly Income
Caste
Scale (as a whole)
0.72
0.68
0.82
0.70
0.67
0.73
0.92
0.76
0.76
0.69
0.86
0.74
0.69
0.74
0.94
0.76
The content validity of the revised scale, since areas and the item
are solely based on research proven items is high and promising.
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3.6.3.2 Administration
It is a self administrating scale. The tester should discuss here the
desired purpose and should explain the description and instructions of the
test. The instructions should be read loudly by the tester. The taste can be
started only after clear understanding has been established. There is no
time limit for the testees to record the responses in the scale. Ordinarily
an individual takes about ten to fifteen minuts to record his/her responses.
3.6.3.3 Scoring
Scoring of the test is very easy and of a quantitative type. Scoring
key provides the weightage score for each item. Every alternative of any
of the items has only one weighted score which will serve to provide the
score if any ticked mark (√) is present in the horizontal plane for father,
mother and case. The scoring key has to be placed vertically between the
two assigned points on the test. The separate score for each area are then
to be totaled vertically. These totals of the scores for each separate area
are thereafter to be put in big boxes provided at the vertical end of each
area for father, mother and case.
The same process of scoring has to be followed in respect of each
page of the scale.
3.6.3.4 Analysis
For analysis of different types of statuses or the desired status of
the study the researcher have to be converted the area wise total of
weighted scores for father, mother and case Z- scores, which are given at
mean fifty and of standard deviation 10. The scale was in Hindi
(Appendix No.- VI) and in this study Gujarati version of SESS (Appendix
No. – III) was applied for collecting the data.
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3.6.4 Academic Performance
To determine the academic performance of the child the result of
past two annual examinations was considered as academic performance.
The results were taken from the parents after verifying the school
progress report card of the children.
3.7 Variables
The aim of this study is to find out the role of demographic factors such
as parent’s education, area and Socio-economic status on the
development of parenting styles and parental involvement. For this
particular study variables were as follow:
3.7.1 Independent Variables
I. Parents Education
i. Up to Primary
ii. Up to Secondary
iii. Graduate and Above
II. Socio-Economic Status
i. Upper Lower
ii. Middle
iii. Upper Middle
III. Area
i. Urban
ii. Rural
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3.7.2 Dependant Variables
I. Parenting Styles
i. Authoritative
ii. Authoritarian
iii. Permissive
II. Parental Involvement
i. Home
ii. School
iii. Psychological Autonomy
III. Academic performance
3.8 Operational Definitions
3.8.1 Parenting
Parenting is a performing a role of a parent by care-giving,
nurturance and protection of the child by a natural or substitute parent.
The parent supports the child by exercising authority and through
consistent, empathic, appropriate behavior in response to the child’s
needs. Parenting differs from child rearing. In the child rearing emphasis
is on the act of training or bringing up the children and the interaction
between the parents and child, while parenting emphasizes the
responsibilities and qualities of exemplary behavior of the parent.
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3.8.2 Parenting Styles
Parenting styles are the manner in which parents rear their children.
Parenting is a complex activity that includes many specific behaviors that
work individually and together to influence child outcomes.
3.8.3 Authoritative Parenting
Authoritative parenting is a parenting trait characterized by warm, open
communication but also firm control. (Holden, 2010) It is a pattern of
child rearing in which parents exercise considerable power but also
respond to the child’s point of view and reasonable demands. Parents
following this pattern set rules of conduct and are fairly demanding but
also encourage the child’s independence and self-expression.
3.8.4 Authoritarian Parenting
Authoritarian parenting is a parenting trait characterized by strict
control, low levels of communication, and law level of warmth. (Holden,
2010) Authoritarian parenting style focused on excessive rules, rigid
belief systems and the expectation of unquestioned obedience.
3.8.5 Permissive parenting
Permissive parenting is a parenting trait characterized by parents
who are warm and loving but fail to control or expect mature behavior
from their children. (Holden, 2010) It is parenting style in which parents
try not to assert their authority and impose few restrictions or demands on
their children.
3.8.6 Parental Involvement
The term “parental involvement” means the participation of parents
in regular, two-way, meaningful communication involving student
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academic learning and other school activities, including ensuring, parents
play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning, parents are
encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school,
parents are full partners in their child’s education and are included, as
appropriate, in decision-making and on advisory committees to assist in
the education of their child and the carrying out of other activities, such
as those described in section 1118 of the ESEA. Section 9101(32), ESEA.
3.8.7 Home Involvement
Home Involvement means parents’ involvement in the activities of
their children at home. Parents’ active participation regarding their
involvement with their children like shopping with children, time
spending on holiday, watching favorite T.V programs with children and
discussion about future plan etc. are included in home involvement.
3.8.8 School Involvement
School Involvement means parents’ involvement in the activities of
their children at school. Parents’ active participation regarding their
involvement with their children like attending parents meeting regularly,
knowing the names of teachers, discussion about children’s learning
problems, children’s participation in co curricular activities etc. are
included in school involvement.
3.8.9 Psychological Autonomy
Psychological Autonomy is about how much freedom parents can
give to their children for taking decisions themselves, they how much
give importance of child’s opinion and friendliness of parents with
children and their discussion about child’s personal problems etc. are
included in Psychological autonomy.
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3.8.10 Socio-Economic Status
Socio-Economic Status is an economical and sociological
combined total measure of a person’s work experience and of an
individual’s economic and social position relatives to others based on
income, education and occupation. (Pingale, 2012) The ‘Socio-Economic
Status’ is obviously a blending of the two statuses as Social and
Economical. Though none of the two can exist without each other yet
they are distinctively different. ‘Socio-Economic Status’ appears to be the
resultant of the position of an individual in a society by virtue of a
complex fusion of both of them, which often do not run parallel to each
other in their own areas. This intermingling takes place in an unidentified
and curious manner eventually to present an indicator to ‘Socio-
Economic Status’. (Bharadwaj, 2006).
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3.9 Design
To conduct the research a 3 x 3 x 2 factorial Design was used for
collecting and analyzing the data:
Variables Education- A
Total
SES- B
Area- C
Up to
Primary(A1)
Up to
Secondary(A2)
Up to
Graduate
&
Above(A3)
Upper
Lower(B1)
Urban(C1) 40 40 40 120
Rural(C2) 40 40 40 120
Middle(B2) Urban(C1) 40 40 40 120
Rural(C2) 40 40 40 120
Upper
Middle(B3)
Urban(C1) 40 40 40 120
Rural(C2) 40 40 40 120
Total 240 240 240 720
Where:
A = Education
A1 = Up to Primary (240)
A2 = Up to Secondary (240
A3 = Up to Graduate & above (240)
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B = Socio-Economic Status
B1 = Upper Lower (240)
B2 = Middle (240)
B3 = Upper Middle (240)
C = Area
C1 = Urban (360)
C2 = Rural (360)
3.10 Procedure
In this study, 720 parents whose children were studying in primary
or secondary school were contacted through various parts of North
Gujarat, Gujarat State, India. The sample was selected from the age range
from 18 to 50 years. After giving them proper instructions, they were
administered Gujarati translated Socio-Economic Status Scale {SESS}
(Bhardwaj et. al., 1998), the Gujarati standardized version of Parenting
Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire {PSDQ- Robinson et. al., 2001}
(Dhila et. al., 2011) and Parental Involvement Scale (Dhila et.al., 2011).
To determine the academic performance of their children the
results of past two annual examinations were considered. The results
were taken from the parents after verifying the school progress report
card of the children.
3.11 Statistical Inference of Data
The obtained data of 720 subjects was analyzed with statistical
techniques of Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and subsequent Least
Significant Difference (LSD) and Correlation. The latest version of
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statistical package (SPSS) was used to calculate statistical techniques and
to analyze the data. All these results of statistical analysis have been
presented in various figures and tables and are discussed in the next
chapter on Results and Discussion.