Author(s)

Maud Schall¹, Seth Christopher Yaw Appiah^2*

¹Faculty of Creative Art, Kumasi Polytechnic, Kumasi, Ghana.
²Department of Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Art and Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.

Background: The dressing or fashion style of tertiary students has become an important issue of much concern in this contemporary era amidst technological advancement. This study examines polytechnic students perspective on the effect science and technology has on dress sense and fashion taste. Methods: The design was a cross-sectional non-experimental survey of 102 polytechnic students between the ages of 15 - 29 years with ample knowledge on dress sense. The sample consisted of 40 male (39.2%) and 62 female (60.8%) students who were enrolled by using a multistage cluster sampling technique according to departments and academic levels. Results: The study found that there was an association between science and technology influence and dress sense (53.7% approval vs. 46.7% disapproval), however this was not statistically significance [x² = 0.21, p ≤ 0.005]. Again the relationship between the future influence of science and technology on the dress sense of students was examined using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient since the two variables of interest were measured at continuous and categorical levels. The study identified a very weak negative correlation between the future influence of science and technology on dress sense and how better students dress will be than now [ρ = -0.2, n = 102, p < 0.05]. Conclusion: The study identifies that there is a very weak relationship between the influence of science and technology on the dress sense of students; however this relationship is not statistically significant.

Polytechnic, Dress, Fashion, Sense, Science and Technology, Ghana

Schall, M. and Appiah, S. (2016) Progressive Retrogression: Science, Technology, Dress Sense and Fashion Taste amongst Polytechnic Students in Ghana. Art and Design Review, 4, 21-29. doi: 10.4236/adr.2016.42004.