Determinants of mindset in Indian college students: an exploratory study

Abstract

Mindset & its relation with demographics has been widely researched with little conclusive results. The aim of the current study is to identify if demographic parameters like age, gender, education level, income & year of study affects the mindset of college students in the Indian context. The study is based on responses from 601 college going students from parts of India with majority being from Ahmedabad. The effects of societal parameters like moral conservatism & living environment are also taken into consideration. The study shows that the mindset of an individual is not influenced by demographics or environmental effects with the parameters rendered statistically insignificant though we get to see interesting non-linear trends. However, age of an individual shows slight significance in the narrow range of age being studied. An extensive study needs to be done with wider age groups to establish its relevance with mindset of an individual.