Wah Academia Journal of Social Sciences

Financial Literacy as a Determinant of Personal Financial Decision-Making

Dr. Pooja Gupta — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Financial literacy has emerged as a critical determinant of individuals’ ability to navigate complex economic environments and make sound personal financial decisions. This paper investigates the relationship between financial literacy and key financial behaviors, including budgeting, saving, debt management, investment participation, and retirement planning. Drawing on a mixed-methods research design that combines quantitative survey data from 350 respondents and qualitative interviews with financial educators and advisors, the study demonstrates that higher levels of financial literacy are significantly and positively associated with prudent financial decision-making. Individuals with strong financial knowledge are more likely to maintain emergency funds, avoid high-interest consumer debt, diversify their investment portfolios, and engage in systematic retirement saving. The findings further reveal that sociodemographic factors—including income, education, gender, and age—moderate the relationship between financial literacy and financial behavior. Low-income and less-educated individuals exhibit the widest literacy gaps and are consequently most vulnerable to poor financial outcomes. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for integrating financial education into formal schooling curricula, workplace programs, and community-based outreach initiatives. Strengthening financial literacy at both individual and institutional levels is essential for fostering economic resilience and long-term financial well-being across diverse population segments.

The Evolving family System and Violent Juvenile Delinquency in Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo Ondo State, Nigeria

OLATUNDE, Oluwafemi Imisioluwa — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates the relationship between the evolving family system and violent juvenile delinquency in Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo, Ondo State, Nigeria. It examines the challenges associated with changing family structures and the extent to which parental social control accounts for variations in delinquent behavior. Anchored on Hirschi’s Social Control Theory, the study reviewed literature on family structures to explain adolescent delinquency through parent-child relationships across different family types. Adopting a qualitative design, the study conducted Focus Group Discussions and In-Depth Interviews on sixty-four participants - eight groups of 6-8 participants each. Participants included parents and children from both two-parent and single-parent households. Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Findings reveal that economic instability, domestic violence, infidelity, and the increasing role of women as breadwinners have weakened family cohesion. Respondents acknowledged that family structure significantly influences juvenile socialization, with single-parent families often lacking consistent supervision, monitoring, and mentoring from both parents. Adolescents from intact two-parent families reported lower odds of engaging in violent delinquency, especially when under adequate parental social control. The study recommends that parents, regardless of family structure or employment demands, should prioritize time for monitoring and mentoring their wards to protect them from negative peer influence and other risk factors associated with violent juvenile delinquency.

Law Without Justice: A Futile Venture in The Nigerian Socio-Political Arena

Justine Jingoe, Temswang, Ph.D. — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The constant yearning for justice through the application of the rule of law in Nigeria has been an issue of great concern as it battles with the problems of extrajudicial killings, jungle justice, violation of rule of law, outright negligence of checks and balance among others, leaves much to be desired in the judicial system. The judiciary that should have been the last bastion of the common man is often hijacked by the influential in government, thereby bringing to disrepute the system, where law, instead of protecting the individual, ends up exposing same: hence the futility of law devoid of justice. This article, Law without Justice: A Futile Venture in the Nigerian Socio-Political Arena, gave a contextual analysis that connects legal theory with contemporary Nigerian realities. Law without justice is not merely ineffective but morally void and futile, thereby questioning the Nigerian legal system in crisis, not solely as structural but also fundamentally ethically-rooted in a disconnection between legal formality and moral accountability in matters pertaining to justice. The harmony of legal, philosophical, and moral perspectives to justice, in the long run, must serve as the animating spirit of the law. Through this interdisciplinary lens, amidst judicial crisis in Nigeria, it proposed that legal reform in Nigeria must begin with moral renewal and civic reorientation in observing, in theory and practice, the tenets inherent in rule of law and checks and balances in building a just and lawful society. Only then can justice be seen not as an abstract concept but as a living soul of law and democracy.

Effects of Core Strengthening Exercises on the Spiking Ability of District-Level Volleyball Players

Aslam Hussain Reshi, Dr Aarif Majeed — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a structured core-strengthening exercise programme on the spiking ability of district-level volleyball players. Fifteen volleyball spikers aged 15–20 years from the Srinagar district of Kashmir were selected as subjects through purposive sampling. The study employed a single-group pre-test and post-test experimental design. Core strength and endurance were assessed using the Plank Hold Test and Sit-Up Test, while spiking ability was evaluated through a customized Volleyball Spiking Accuracy Test. Following the pre-test assessment, the participants underwent a structured core-strengthening exercise programme designed to improve trunk stability, muscular endurance, and overall core function. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and paired-samples t-tests at a 0.05 level of significance through JAMOVI software. The results revealed significant improvements in core strength variables. Sit-up performance increased significantly from a mean score of 27.87 to 30.67 repetitions (t = -6.089, p < .001), while plank hold duration improved from 71.53 seconds to 76.13 seconds (t = -5.901, p < .001). Spiking accuracy also increased from a mean score of 22.60 to 24.40; however, the improvement was not statistically significant (t = -1.79, p = .095). The findings indicate that core-strengthening exercises are highly effective in enhancing core muscular strength and endurance among volleyball players. Although improvements in spiking accuracy were observed, they did not reach statistical significance, suggesting that technical volleyball skills require integrating sport-specific practice with physical conditioning. The study concludes that core-strengthening exercises provide an important physical foundation for volleyball performance and should be incorporated into comprehensive training programmes aimed at improving athletic performance and reducing injury risk.

Effect of Suryanamaskar Practice on Selected Physical Fitness Variables Among Male District-Level Volleyball Players of Kashmir

Towheed Ahmad Wagay, Dr. Chanderkant Dhiman — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of Suryanamaskar practice on selected physical fitness variables among male district-level (Bandipora) volleyball players of Kashmir. Fifteen male volleyball players aged between 15 and 20 years were selected through simple random sampling. The study employed a single-group pre-test and post-test research design. The selected participants underwent a structured Suryanamaskar training program for six weeks, five days per week, with each session lasting 30–45 minutes. The dependent variables selected for the study were speed, agility, and flexibility. Speed was measured using the 50-Meter Dash Test, agility through the Shuttle Run Test, and flexibility through the Sit-and-Reach Test. Descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation, were computed, while a dependent-samples t-test was used to determine the significance of differences between pre-test and post-test scores at the 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed a significant improvement in agility (t = 3.25, p < 0.05) and flexibility (t = 7.95, p < 0.05) following the Suryanamaskar intervention. However, the improvement in speed was not statistically significant (t = 0.46, p > 0.05). The findings indicate that regular Suryanamaskar practice effectively enhances agility and flexibility among volleyball players but has limited influence on speed performance. Therefore, Suryanamaskar may be incorporated as a supplementary training modality in volleyball conditioning programs to improve selected components of physical fitness. The study concludes that traditional yogic practices can serve as cost-effective and scientifically supported methods for enhancing athletic performance and physical fitness.

Advancing Research and Development in the 21st Century: Innovation, Impact, and Transformation

Ms. Shivani Shukla — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Research and Development (R&D) has emerged as a central driver of innovation, economic growth, and societal transformation in the twenty-first century. Rapid technological progress, globalization of knowledge, digitalization, and the growing importance of sustainability have fundamentally reshaped the nature, scope, and impact of R&D activities. Unlike earlier periods where R&D was largely confined to laboratories and public research institutions, contemporary R&D ecosystems are increasingly collaborative, interdisciplinary, and globally networked. This paper examines how advanced R&D practices contribute to innovation, economic competitiveness, and structural transformation in modern economies. The study explores the evolving role of R&D in driving technological breakthroughs across sectors such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, renewable energy, and advanced manufacturing. It also highlights the growing importance of research commercialization, university–industry collaboration, and public–private partnerships in translating scientific knowledge into real-world impact. At the same time, the paper acknowledges emerging challenges, including unequal access to research infrastructure, rising R&D costs, ethical concerns, and the need for inclusive and sustainable innovation systems. Using a qualitative and analytical research approach, the paper synthesizes insights from academic literature, policy reports, and global innovation frameworks to assess how R&D influences productivity, competitiveness, and long-term development. The findings suggest that countries and organizations that strategically invest in R&D, human capital, and innovation ecosystems are better positioned to adapt to technological disruption and global uncertainty. The paper concludes that advancing R&D in the 21st century requires an integrated approach that combines technological innovation with institutional reform, sustainability objectives, and social responsibility. Strengthening R&D governance, fostering collaboration, and aligning research priorities with societal needs are essential for maximizing the transformative impact of R&D in a rapidly changing global environment.

The Geography of Becoming: Thirdspace, Family Systems, and Transformative Learning in Tara Westover's Educated

Dyuti Mehnaz Ali, Riyad Md. Arefin Sohan — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study offers a close reading of Tara Westover's memoir Educated (2018) through an interdisciplinary framework that joins Edward Soja's spatial theory of Thirdspace with family systems theory, transformative learning theory, and contemporary trauma and posttraumatic growth scholarship. Rather than treating the protagonist's upbringing as a case study in any particular belief system, the paper approaches her isolated rural childhood, her labor in a family scrapyard, and her eventual departure for formal schooling as a problem of space, family structure, and psychological development. Drawing on Soja's distinction between Firstspace, Secondspace, and Thirdspace, the study traces how Buck's Peak is produced, conceived, and ultimately reimagined as the narrator moves from an undifferentiated family unit toward what Murray Bowen calls differentiation of self. Jack Mezirow's transformative learning theory illuminates how formal education functions less as the acquisition of facts than as a disorienting dilemma that restructures the narrator's frame of reference, while Judith Herman's stages of trauma recovery, Rachel Pain's concept of geotrauma, and Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun's model of posttraumatic growth account for the psychological costs and gains of that transformation. The paper argues that Educated dramatizes a sustained act of self-authorship in which space, family, and learning are inseparably entangled, and proposes this combined framework as a model for reading contemporary memoir that foregrounds psychological and spatial explanation over biographical description.

The Case for Large Language Models in Contract Generation

S.V. Kannangara — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Does a contract need a mind behind it? Eliza Mik’s influential working paper says yes and concludes that large language models, lacking genuine understanding, can produce only “contractual deepfakes.” This article argues that Mik’s technical premise is accurate but her jurisprudential conclusions do not follow from it: contract law has never required epistemically validated drafting, only functionally adequate text. Through systematic doctrinal analysis, five structural defects are identified in Mik’s argument, including concessions within her own paper that are fatally inconsistent with her conclusions. In their place, this article proposes the Functional Adequacy Threshold, i.e., a context-calibrated standard grounded in the objective theory of contract and attentive to the access to justice dimension that Mik’s analysis entirely ignores. The argument is not that AI contract generation is risk-free. It is that risk calls for governance, not prohibition.

Ecological Consciousness in the Poetry of William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley: An Ecocritical Reading through Ayah and Tawhid

Nasim Sekh — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines the ecological consciousness embedded in the poetry of William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley through an ecocritical framework enriched by the comparative concepts of Ayah (sign) and Tawhid (unity). While ecocriticism has traditionally developed within Western literary theory, this research demonstrates how selected concepts from Islamic intellectual thought can broaden ecological interpretation without implying historical influence or textual dependence. Employing qualitative textual analysis and close reading, the study examines Tintern Abbey, The Tables Turned, The World Is Too Much with Us, The Prelude, Ode to the West Wind, and Mont Blanc. The analysis argues that Wordsworth presents nature as a moral educator and a source of spiritual reflection, whereas Shelley imagines nature as a dynamic system of energy, transformation, and universal interconnectedness. Interpreting these poetic visions through the comparative frameworks of Ayah and Tawhid reveals significant conceptual affinities concerning ecological ethics, environmental responsibility, and the intrinsic value of the natural world. The study concludes that Romantic poetry provides enduring ecological insights that remain highly relevant to contemporary environmental crises and contributes to the development of comparative ecocriticism by establishing a dialogue between British Romantic literature and Islamic environmental thought.