ABSTRACT
The
study basically examined the psychosocial correlates of academic performance
among primary school pupils in Lagos State. Four research objectives leading to
four research questions and hypotheses were stated to guide the study. A total
number of 120 pupils were carefully selected from the entire population through
the method of stratified and simple random strategy. The descriptive survey
research design in nature and a questionnaire was developed to gather the data
used for the study. Data gathered from
the demographic background characteristics of respondents were presented in
frequency counts and percentages while Correlation statistics using 0.05level
was used to test the hypotheses. Findings of the study showed that there is no
significant relationship between parental influence and academic performance;
there is a significant relationship between teacher influence and academic
performance; there is a significant relationship between self-esteem and
academic performance; there is a significant relationship between peer group
influence and academic performance. Recommendations were made following the outcomes of the research
findings that there
is need to start early at boosting
children’s self-esteem by encouraging them
where necessary in respect to their possibilities of attaining an academic
height; parents and teachers should be educated on the need to allow self-discovery among young
ones. To ensure no major direct influence from both on their academic
performance of the pupils, maladjusted students
should be given psycho- socio therapy especially in self-esteem and peer group influence. Parents should ensure that
they monitor their children at home and correct them properly in terms of where
they lack in esteem and relating with peer group.
Key Words: Psychological
Correlates, Academic Performance, Parental Influence and Self-Esteem.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgements iv
Table of Contents v
Abstract vii
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study 1
1.2 Statement of Problem 7
1.3 Purpose of Study 8
1.4 Research Questions 8
1.5 Research Hypotheses 9
1.6 Significance of Study 9
1.7 Scope of the Study 10
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms 10
CHAPTER
TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Parent Involvement
and Academic Performance 12
2.2 Correlation Between
Parental Involvement And Student Academic Performance 13
2.3 Major Dimensions of
Parental Involvement 16
2.4 Student Perceptions
of Parental Involvement 19
2.5 Effect of Peer Group Influence on
Academic Performance 20
2.6 Modes and Mechanism of Peer Influence
on Academic Performance 22
2.7 Teacher Influence on Academic
Performance 24
2.8 Determining The Effect Of Teachers On Student Achievement 26
2.9 Characteristics of an Effective Teacher Related To Student
Achievement 28
2.10 Self Esteem and Academic Performance 31
2.11 Summary of the Review and gap in
knowledge 33
CHAPTER
THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design 36
3.2 Area of the Study 36
3.3 Population of the Study 37
3.4 Sample and Sampling Techniques 37
3.5 Research Instruments 37
3.6 Validity of Research
Instruments 38
3.7 Administration of Instruments 38
3.8 Scoring of Instruments, and 38
3.9 Procedure for Data Analysis 38
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Analysis of Respondents’ Demographic Data 39
4.2 Testing Research Hypotheses 40
4.3 Summary of the Findings 42
4.4 Discussion of Findings 43
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION,
RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Summary of the Study 46
5.2 Conclusion 46
5.3 Recommendations 47
5.4 Suggestions
for Further Research 47
References 48
Appendix
53
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
In the Nigeria society today, education of children in at least
basic education is in the top burner. It is also necessary that these children
be rightly nurtured by all stakeholders involved in the process and period of
their basic education to ensure that they perform well and optimally
academically and otherwise.
Primary education according to the National Policy on Education
2013 is the basic education given in institutions to children between ages
6-12yers. The duration shall be six years. Formal education begins with primary
education. Primary education is compulsory and free under the Universal Basic
Education (UBE) programme introduced by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on
September 30th 1999.The two basic functions of primary schools are to prepare
the child for life and to give those with the necessary background the
opportunity to proceed to secondary school level. (NERC, 1969).
The National Policy on Education (2014) also listed 7 objectives
of primary education one of which is to instill permanent literacy and numeracy
and ability to communicate effectively. It is also to provide the child with
the basic tools for further educational advancement.
According to Amadi (2014), effective teaching requires a
professional teacher. The National Policy on Education (2014) stipulates that
the minimum requirement to teach at primary school level is a National
Certificate in Education (NCE). This effort is to ensure quality of teaching
and ultimately good academic performance by primary school children.
The importance of the primary school upon which the educational
system is rested cannot be overemphasized. This level of education therefore
deserves the special attention of all stakeholders. It provides the base and
foundation for every other training which the child receives. The level of
education attainment of any person is strongly influenced by the quality and
standard of knowledge acquired at the formative stage of life.( Adeogun,1999).
Most knowledge, skills, values and attitudes relevant for living
must be introduced in some ways to the pupils at this stage. Since the rest of
the educational system is built on it , the primary level is key to the success
or failure of the whole system. In fact primary education is the substructure
upon which other education levels are created. (Amadi,2014). This underscores
the importance of good academic performance for every child that undergoes primary school education in Nigeria.
Academic Performance is how well an individual has done in
cognitive and non-.cognitive tasks. Academic achievement of students especially
at the elementary school level is not only a pointer to the effectiveness or
otherwise of schools but a major determinant of the future of youths in
particular and the nation in general. Learning outcomes have become a phenomenon
of interest to all and this account for the reason why scholars have been
working hard to untangle factors that militate against good academic
performance (Aremu & Sokan, 2002). This phenomenon has been variedly
referred in literature as academic achievement, or scholastic functioning.
Academic achievement of learners has attracted attention of scholars, parents,
policy- makers and planners.
Adeyemo (2001) opined that the major goal of the school is to work
towards attainment of academic excellence by students. According to him, the
school may have other peripheral objectives but emphasis is always placed on
the achievement of sound scholarship. Besides, virtually everybody concerned
with education places premium on academic achievement; excellent academic
achievement of children is often the expectation of parents (Osiki, 2001).
Academic achievement represents one of the key aspects of school
adjustment (Caprara, Barbaranelli, Patorelli, Bandura & Zimbado, 2000). It
remains one of the important targets for elementary school teachers, parents
and students alike. High school academic achievement is linked to positive
attitudes to school. Well achieving children experience less stress, have
better mental health and are less likely to skip classes or drop out of school
in later years. (Caprara et al, 2000)
Several methods are used to measure child academic performance,
including standardized and teacher- made achievement test scores,
assessments, teacher ratings of academic
performance, and report card grades. Standardized achievement tests are
objective instruments that assess skills and abilities children learn through
direct instruction in a variety of subject areas including reading,
mathematics, and writing (Sattler, 2001). Teacher rating
scales allow teachers to rate the accuracy of the child's academic work
compared to other children in the class, and allow for ratings on a wider range
of academic tasks than examined on standardized achievement tests (DuPaul & Rapport, 1991
Though Academic Achievement is closely linked to intellectual
ability as well as family characteristics, (Jacob & Harvey, 2015), a
child’s ability to operate effectively in social environment is vital for
making good use of intellectual potential. Intelligence is only one of the
elements belonging to the internal factors of academic performance. However,
this is not the most important factor in all cases, because besides
intelligence, academic performance depends on other internal conditions, too
(motivation, attitudes, personality traits, etc.) and external ones (method,
exigencies, nature of the academic tasks, school textbooks, etc.(Kulcsar, 1978)
The intellectual factor accounts only partially for academic results, which
indicates that, for a large number of pupils, the poor academic achievement is
mainly determined by non-intellectual factors, such as high emotional insecurity,
poor motivation, negative attitude, weak self-regulation or other psycho-social
unfavourable circumstances
Psycho-social factors are influences that affect a person
psychologically or socially. There are multidimensional constructs encompassing
several domains such as mood status (anxiety, depression, distress and positive
affect), Cognitive behaviour responses (satisfaction, self-efficacy, self-esteem,
and locus of control) and social factors (sociometric status, education,
employment, religion, ethnicity, family, physical attributes, locality,
relationships with others, change in personal roles and status. (Shin-chi,
Suzuki and Yuko Taker, 2013)
The influence of home environment on students’ academic
achievement at the individual level is still prevalent, but less strong in much
of the literature. There is an awareness of the importance of the home
environment or family structure on student’s academic achievement. The home has
a great influence on the students’ psychological, emotional, social and economic
state. In the view of Ajila and Olutola (2000), the state of the home affects
the individual since the parents are the first socializing agents in an
individual’s life. This is because the family background and context of a child
affect his reaction to life situations and his level of performance. Although,
the school is responsible for the experiences that make up the individual’s
life during school periods, yet parents and the individual’s experiences at
home play tremendous roles in building the personality of the child and making
the child what he is. Thus, Ichado (1998) concluded that the environment in
which the student comes from can greatly influence his performance in school.
The state of the home may affect individual since the parents are the first
socializing agents in an individual’s life. This is because the family
background and context of a child affect his reaction to life situations and
his level of academic achievement.
Parent involvement in a child's early education is consistently found to
be positively associated with a child's academic performance (Hara & Burke,
1998; Hill and Craft, 2003; Marcon, 1999;
Stevenson and Baker, 1987). Specifically,
children whose parents are more involved in their education have higher levels
of academic performance than children whose parents are involved to a lesser
degree. The influence of parent involvement on academic success has not only
been noted among researchers, but also among policy makers who have integrated
efforts aimed at increasing parent involvement into broader educational policy
initiatives. Coupled with these findings of the importance of early academic
success, a child's academic success has been found to be relatively stable
after early elementary school (Entwisle & Hayduk,
1988; Pedersen, Faucher,
& Eaton, 1978). Therefore, it is important to examine factors
that contribute to early academic success and that are amenable to change.
Researchers have reported that parent-child
interactions, specifically stimulating and responsive parenting practices, are
important influences on a child's academic development (Christian,
Morrison, & Bryant, 1998; Committee on Early
Childhood Pedagogy, 2000). By examining specific parenting practices
that are amenable to change, such as parent involvement, and the mechanisms by
which these practices influence academic performance, programs may be developed
to increase a child's academic performance. While parent involvement has been
found to be related to increased academic performance, the specific mechanisms
through which parent involvement exerts its influence on a child's academic
performance are not yet fully understood (Hill & Craft, 2003).
Understanding these mechanisms would inform further research and policy
initiatives and may lead to the development of more effective intervention
programs designed to increase children's academic performance.
A positive student-teacher relationship has been
defined as the teacher's perception that his or her relationship with the child
is characterized by closeness and a lack of dependency and conflict (Birch & Ladd, 1997). Closeness
is the degree of warmth and open communication between the student and teacher,
dependency is the over-reliance on the teacher as a source of support, and
conflict is the degree of friction in student-teacher interactions (Birch & Ladd, 1997). Previous
research found that close, positive student-teacher relationships are
positively related to a wide range of child social and academic outcomes in
school (Hughes, Gleason, & Zhang, 2005).
Specifically, a close student-teacher relationship is an important predictor of
a child's academic performance (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Hamre & Pianta, 2001).
Previous research has also found that parent involvement in a child's education
positively influences the nature of the student-teacher relationship (Hill & Craft, 2003; Stevenson & Baker, 1987).
Therefore, the student-teacher relationship was examined for its ability to
explain the relation between parent involvement and a child's academic
performance.
Today self-esteem as one of the influential
factor which affect student’s academic achievement has received increasing
attention. In psychology, the term self-esteem is
used to describe a person's overall sense of self-worth or personal value.
Self-esteem is often seen as a personality trait, which means
that it tends to be stable and enduring.
Self-esteem can involve a variety of beliefs
about the self, such as the appraisal of one's own appearance, beliefs,
emotions, and behaviours. According to (Branden, 1969), Self-esteem is an
essential human need that is vital for survival normal and healthy development
It has
been declared that high self-esteem can lead to high academic achievement.
Self-esteem can be referred to as person's global judgments of competency
regarding one's self-worth (Harter, 1988). This construct
emerges when children compare their self-evaluation with actual performance on
a variety of tasks.
In general, high self-esteem help individuals to
view themselves as active and capable persons to promote changes through effort
and set higher goals which cause learning new things. Interestingly, numerous
researchers have demonstrated that the best way to improve student achievement
is to increase their self-esteem (Rubieet al., 2004).
Research has also documented that high self- esteem plays an important role in
academic achievement, social and personal responsibility (Redenbach, 1991).
Those who have higher academic achievement tend to feel more confident in
contrast those who lack confidence in themselves achieve less.
Goethe found out that weak students do better when grouped with
other weak students. (As implied by Zajonc’s analysis of older siblings (1976)
it shows that students’ performance improves if they are with the students of
their own kind. There are often
different results by gender, as in Hoxby’s K-12 results (2000); Sacerdote
(2001) finds that grades are higher when students have unusually academically
strong roommates. The results of
Zimmerman (1999, 2001) were somewhat contradictory to Goethe results but again
it proved that students performance depends on number of different factors, it
says that weak peers might reduce the grades of middling or strong students. (Alexander,
Gur et al. 1974; Fraser, Beamn et al. 1977) explained that some of the
practices adopted by college administration in higher education like
residential colleges or organized study groups also help to increases
performance.
Keeping in view all of the
variables discussed by different researchers we have chosen only those
variables that are recognizable and relates to primary school settings.The
majority of the studies to date seem to indicate that further investigation is
required to unravel the complex determinants of academic performance.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Amongst the seven primary education objectives stipulated in the
National Policy on Education is the need to instill permanent literacy and
Numeracy and ability to communicate effectively in the children. Another objective for primary education according
to the National Policy on Education is to provide the child with the basic
tools for further educational advancement. These objectives
are far from being achieved as a result of the poor performance of some
pupils in primary schools in Nigeria (Kosofe Local Government Area in Lagos
state in particular) especially in their inability to read, write and express
themselves correctly in English language (Permanent Literacy Skill) . Their low performance in English has led to
low enrolment of some of these children into Secondary Schools .This is also
contrary to the objectives of the National Policy on Education for primary
education. This in turn has delayed the progress of these children. Some of
them have given up and decided to discontinue their educational pursuit as they
have lost confidence in their ability to succeed academically if they
eventually manage to get enrolled after further attempt.
Some studies have attributed the poor performance of children to
some psycho-social factors like the (family) parental influence, (school) the
teacher, peer group and (Personality Traits) and self-esteem.
1.3 Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study is to find out the extent at which some
psycho-social factors such as parental influence, teacher influence, peer group
influence and self-esteem influence the academic performance of primary school
children in Lagos State. Specifically, this study seeks to:
1. To examine the relationship between parental influence and
academic performance.
2. To ascertain whether teacher influence have significant effect on
academic performance
3. Find out if peer group influence has significant effect on
academic performance
4. Examine the effect of self-esteem on academic performance
1.4 Research Questions
The study will address the following
research questions:
1. Is there a relationship between parental influence and academic
performance?
2. What is the relationship between teacher influence and academic
performance?
3. How is self-esteem related to academic performance?
4. Is there a relationship between peer group influence and
academic performance?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses were tested in the study:
1. There is no significance relationship between parental
influence and academic performance.
2. There is no significance relationship between teacher
influence and academic performance.
3. There is no significant relationship between self esteem and
academic performance.
4. There is no significant relationship between peer group
influence and academic performance
1.6
Significance of Study
This research has implication for addressing the problems that
result in poor academic performance of primary school children, especially in
Lagos State. This study is therefore relevant to teachers and school administrators
who may wish to ensure that pupils under their care are well nurtured in the
right way in other to bring out the best in them to ensure excellent academic
performance. The study is also important to Parents who expect excellent
performance from their children. This will help them to understand the manner
in which to interact and influence their children in order to ensure good
academic performance.
Schools will also benefit from this study as it will help
them to ensure that they provide adequate
human resources and the right environment to give children balanced education
to ensure good academic performance.
This study is also relevant to Learners as it will help primary
school children to make their basic education worth the while in order to have
a solid foundation for higher education in the future. The Government will also
be able carry out proper supervision of schools to ensure that government
policy on education is being followed to ensure good academic performance by
children.
1.7 Scope of the Study
This study is limited to one hundred and twenty pupils from two
public primary schools and two private primary schools in Kosofe Local
Government Areas of Lagos State.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
For the purpose of this study, the following terms will be defined
thus;
Primary School Pupils
Primary Schools pupils are
children between ages 6- 11years who are given education in formal institutions of learning known as
primary school.
Primary /Elementary Education
The words primary education and elementary education shall be used
interchangeably in this study.
Fafunwa (1974) defined primary education as a system of education that helps the child to
master the 3Rs that is reading, writing and arithmetic, develop
sound standard of individual conduct, acquire some skills and appearance the
value of manual work.
Primary education is the first stage of compulsory education
coming between early childhood education and secondary education.
Academic
Performance
This is the behaviour of a student that can be directly observed
by evaluating what he/she has learnt during a course of study. This behaviour
can be measured through class work, homework, class participation and tests. It
is the extent to which a student has reached the educational goals set for him.
Psycho-social Correlates
Psycho-social Correlates
are the psychological and social factors which are related and connected
in some way to influence the academic performance of a child. In this study, we
shall focus on variables which are concerned with five of these factors which
include Family /parental influence/ involvement, teacher influence, peer group
influence and self esteem.
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