Influence of Family Background on the Academic Achievement of Senior Secondary School Students in Nsukka Educational Zone of Enugu State.
CHAPTER ONE
Purpose of the Study
Generally, the purpose of the study was to find out the influence of family background on students’ academic achievement among senior secondary school students in Nsukka Education zone.
Specifically, the purpose of the study is to find out:
- The influence of parental level of education on academic achievement of senior secondary school
- The influence of parental occupation on students’ academic
- The influence of parental income on students’ academic
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The chapter presents a review of related literature under the following sub- headings.
Conceptual Framework
- Concept of family
- Concept of family background
- Concept of achievement
- Concept of academic achievement
Theoretical Framework
- Parental attachment theory
- Self-determination theory
- Maslow’s motivational theory
- Empirical Studies on family background and academicachievement
- Summary of related
Conceptual Framework Concept of Family
Family has been described at the smallest, most personal and not intimate of social groups. It is the most important primary group and the smallest social unit in the society. Odo (1990:10) defined family as “a social group sharing a common residence and co- operating economically”. The author went further to assert that the institutions of the family is usually based on the marriage of one or more sexually co-habiting couples and usually there is the expectation of having children for whom the adults of the family accept responsibility. Alio (1995) observed that the family is also the most personal social
organization, for nothing is more personal than the interaction and relationship between members of a family. He further said that married couple without children, though bound by the strongest personal ties do not constitute a family for such ties can conceivably exist among couples who are not married. For him, what gives a family its character are children, for only in such a family can that intimate, personal relationship be established by which the family can perform its functions of rearing, protecting and educating the children, transmitting to them the social values it has inherited and a special bond between all the members. This kind of family setting is similar to the Nigerian traditional idea of family. Traditionally, it is believed that it is the children that cement the union of a man and a woman together and makes it a lasting and a intimate one. The primary aim of this union is procreation.
Family can be classified into nuclear and extended form. Nuclear family is basic form of family organization. It is made up of the father (husband), mother (wife) and children. The children may be the biological offspring; of the couple or/and the adopted members of the family. According to Okafor (1992), the adoption of a child into the family is a common culture in the British society, but less so in Nigerian society. He added that nuclear family is found common among the urban city elites in Nigerian society or as a component in both extended, nuclear and compound family in Nigerian rural areas. The author maintained that one of the characteristics of the nuclear family is that is tends to break up when the children marry, when the parents die or at any point in human cycle. According to him, the male raised in a nuclear family usually begins his life in house hold headed by his parents and concluded his life in a family that he himself heads.
Extended family is the type of family that comprises of the father (husband) his wife (mother), their children, the husbands and the wife’s relations etc. Alio (1995) pointed out that the extended system is a dispersal version of the joint family and the members of the constituent groups do not all live together in one dwelling. To him, the extended kin-group includes a span of three or four generations within the total household or closely adjacent households. The extended family system is commonly a characteristics of most African society. Many Nigerian societies do not believe in nuclear family but in modern times, urbanization and economic pressures are discouraging extended family ties. However, extended family system is the popular and most common type of family arrangement in the Nigerian society. Anybody who fails to practice or show interest in the extended relations is regarded as a wicked and hopeless human being by members of the society.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter discusses the procedure that is adopted in carrying out this study. It focuses on the research design, area of the study, population of the study, sample and sampling technique, instrument for data collection, validation of the instrument, reliability of the instrument, method of data collection and method of data analysis.
Research Design
The study was carried out using ex-post facto method in examining the influence of family background on student’s academic achievement in senior secondary schools in Nsukka education zone. Ex-post facto research design according Ngwagu (2005) is a systematic empirical inquiry in which the researcher does not have direct control on independent variables because they are inherently not easy to manipulate. The purpose of ex-post facto research design is to find out factors that seem to be closely associated with certain behaviours, occurrences, prevalence or conditions. Ex-post facto design is considered suitable for this study because it is practical and versatile. The design enables the researcher to collect original data from the respondents themselves and describes the present conditions as they exist in their natural family settings.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS
In this chapter, data were presented on the basis of the research questions and hypotheses that guided the study.
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULT
In this chapter, data presented in the previous chapter are discussed under the following sub-heading: Discussion and interpretation of findings, Implication of the Study, Recommendation of study, Limitation of the study, Areas for further studies, Summary and Conclusion.
Discussion of the Findings
The findings of this study are discussed and compared with empirical studies done previously by other researchers. These discussions are carried out based on the issues relevant with the research question and null hypotheses that guided the study.
Influence of parental level of education on students’ academic achievement.
The focus of this research question was to establish the influence of parental level of education on students’ academic achievement. The result of these findings as summarized in table 1 (one) showed that students (respondents) overwhelmingly agree that parental level of education is a contributory factor in students’ academic achievement. The findings of this study tend to agree with the opinions expressed by Onochie and Okpalla (1985) that educational level of parents which is an indicator of socio-economic status has direct influence on child’s value and academic achievement in the school. The scholars further maintained that children from illiterate families may learn little or nothing from home that can help them to develop interest in academics.
Influence of Parental Occupation on Students’ Academic Achievement
With reference to research question two, it is the view of students (respondents) that parental occupation is not a contributory factor in students academic achievement. This finding is contrary to the view of Ezeji (2001) who noted that parents like their children to take to their occupations. Such parents include lawyers, doctors, musicians among others. Uwoma (2006) in her study was also the opinion that most vocational students were children whose parents were farmers or craftsmen. However the findings do not agree with Eke (1999) who observed that parental occupation does not significantly influence academic achievement of students. The difference in the findings of this scholars and others may be as a result of data analysis. For example, while Eke (1999) used product moment correlation coefficient method, other researchers (Uwoma 2006 and Ezeji 2001) use t-test for data analysis.
Influence of Parental Income on Students’ Academic Achievement
With regard to the third research question, the students (respondents) agreed that parental level of income influence students’ academic achievement. This is in conformity with Francis (2007) who opines that the lower income families may be aware of the importance of education in the society, but at the same time they are also aware of their limited resources to measure up with such educational demands. According to the author, a family that can scarcely provide for the basic needs of the family which include food, shelter and clothing will hardly motivate the academic excellence of their children. Instead, they will pressurize their children to seek for job opportunities with the little education they acquired to support the family.
The result also indicate that students whose parents are on high income status higher academic aspiration than children whose parents are on low income status. This findings is in conformity with the view of Ojo and Yilma (2010) that the Socio-economic status of a mainly is capable of affecting the behaviour of the children and determines their aspiration. Families with high socio-economic status often have more success in preparing their children for school because they typically have access to wide range of providing their young children with high quality child care, and books. They also encourage their children in various learning activities at home.
CONCLUSION
From the findings of the study, it was concluded that family background factor influence academic achievement of students in schools. Prominent among the family background factors include parental educational level, parental income and parental motivation. Educational statuses of the parents and students’ academic achievement have a close relationship between them. This is because parents themselves having being to school realized the importance of being educated. They stand better chance to support their children for better academic achievement.
On parental motivation, it was found that students who received encouragement and motivation from the family perform better in schools than their counterparts from non encouraging families. The major reasons for the observed difference in performance are the motivation and positive attitude of the parents towards their children’s academic progress.
Recommendations
Education is an important instrument of change in modern societies. Provision of adequate and relevant education is the best thing a nation can do for its citizens. This is more so, because education is a virile weapon against ignorance, disease, poverty and as a means of producing enlightened, responsible and industrious citizenry and prosperous nation.
Based on this background, the researcher makes the following recommendations:
- One of the major findings of this study is that parental income level has a great influence on students’ academic achievement. For example, most cases, parental income is proportional to students finding which also determine to a large extent, the level of academic achievement of students. In this case, it is recommended that parents as a matter of importance should diversify their sources of income so that they can be able to provide fund their children in school for better academic achievement.
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