PARENTAL MOTIVATION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SOCIAL STUDIES

parental motivation and academic performance of students in social studies

Abstract

The study was on parental motivation and academic performance of students in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Three specific objectives of the study were stated to guide the study. Three research questions and three research hypotheses were formulated for the study. A survey research design was adopted. The population of this study comprised 2336 secondary two students in eleven secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

Findings showed that there is a significant difference in academic performance of students whose parents assist in doing homework and those whose parents do not assist in doing homework in secondary schools; there is a significant difference in academic performance of students based on parents education in Social studies in secondary schools; also that there is a significant difference in academic performance of students based on their parental income in Social studies in secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

The term motivation is derived from the Latin word mover, meaning “to move”. Motivation can be broadly defined as the forces acting on or within a person that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of goal-directed, voluntary effort. Wlodkowski and Jaynes (2010) explain that in the broadest sense, motivation is “a value and a desire for learning”. According to Mangal (2018), Motivation may be regarded as something, which prompts, compels and energizes an individual to act or behave in a particular manner at a particular time for attaining some specific goal or purpose. But what exactly is responsible for the motivation of an individual? What are the real activating forces that push and pull an individual to move for achieving a specific goal? Psychologists have tried to provide the answer by identifying these activating forces as needs, drives and motives.

According to Steers (2016) theories of motivation as the product of internal drives that compel an individual to act or move toward the satisfaction of individual needs. The process theories are concerned with determining how individual behavior is energized, directed, and maintained in specifically willed and self-directed human cognitive processes. Process theories of motivation are based on early cognitive theories, which posit that behavior is the result of conscious decision-making processes of which parents are the first motivators of their children in all sphere of life including education.

The role that parents play in the upbringing of a child is very important. Children look up-to their parents for guidance, protection and motivation to live a great life. One of the best ways to achieve wholesome qualities of education is the partnership of parents and teachers in injecting valuable skills, conduct, and knowledge to the students (Dautscher and Ibe, 2013). All over the world parents play a vital role in the education of their child, child’s age. If parents pay attention to their children, they make more scholastic achievements than those who are ignored. The motivation offered by parents play a vital role in influencing their children’s learning as well as shaping their improvement in the academic attainment and achievements and their overall behavior.

Some of the characteristics that parents may portray which may influence their children’s academic achievement and performance in school are parent’s education, socio-economic status, involvement in children’ education, attitudes, aspirations and behaviour which are all important, as well as their ability to understand their child’s day-to-day progress in school and talking regularly with their child about their learning (Carbonel, Banggawan and Agbisit, 2013). These are various parental characteristics that may be a major challenge for the students in secondary schools.

Although many risk factors associated with underachievement are difficult to alter, participation of parents in their children’s education has been shown to positively impact learning outcomes of the children in school. Furthermore some parents have higher educational aspirations for their children but are less involved at home and school (Kuperminc, Darnell and Alvarez-Jimenez, 2012). The characteristics of parents are conceptualized as to affect the academic performance of their children. One of the characteristics such as family backgrounds can contribute to either shaping or destroying their performance.

According to an observation made by Pinantoan (2013), students with two parents operating in supportive roles are 52 percent more likely to enjoy school and get good marks than students whose parents are disengaged with what’s going on at school. This is especially the case during the earliest years of schooling, in Kindergarten through the primary school level, when students with active parents are almost twice as likely to succeed. Once students enter secondary school, the effect diminishes slightly possibly because they are maturing during this time but there is still a 22 percent difference.

In Nigeria, education achievement is one of the most important aspects of the society. This is because in the developing nations academic achievement is one of the keys to development and growth of both the individual and the society. Thus, the characteristics portrayed by parents in the education of their children is important in ensuring that the students focus on their studies and are able to have good academic performance. In Akwa Ibom State for instance, the characteristics of parents or guardians towards learning of children is associated positively with students’ performance in school (Eno, Uwem and Osei-Akoto, 2012).

According to Amukowa and Karue (2013) among the key causes of poor performance in education, characteristics such as parental involvement and the parental education as well as family background have a major impact on pupil’s academic achievement. Most research has dwelled on poor facilities and finances as among the key causes of poor academic performance among many students in public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State (Samuel, 2016). Therefore with the numerous advantages that accrue from the involvement of parents in education, it is imperative that this study be carried out on parental motivation and students’ academic performance in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

It can also be recognized that there are various parental factors which influences greatly how children get to interact with their friends in the outside world. One of the key factors as observed by Khasakhala, (2013) includes the parenting behavior. The parenting characteristic has been observed as to largely influence the prevalence of depression among youths attending general health facilities and those in secondary schools (Weissman, Wickramaratne, and Bruder, 2015).

The level of income of the parent is another factor which assists parents to be classified socially to different strata in the society which may play important role in the academic performance of the students in secondary schools and universities. According to Samuel (2014) the level of income is the amount of money the parents (father and mother) receive monthly, weekly or daily from their occupational activities. Samuel emphasized that the level of income of the parents may be determined by the level of education the parents attain and this may influence the level of exposure of the parents which make the parents to be versatile in encouraging the children academically.

The children from these rich parents may be inherently motivated to be like their parents when they grow and this will make them to study well in school. On the other hand children from poor parents are likely to experience learning disabilities and developmental delays than children from rich parents. Although some students from poor background are motivated and encouraged by their parents academically by providing home teachers for these children at home, this tends to increase the intrinsic motivation of the children and increase the academic performance in school.

This is an indication that indeed parental motivation needs to be effectively looked into and how it affects the academic performance of students. This therefore motivated the present research on parental motivation and students’ academic performance in social studies in junior in secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

1.2 Statement of the problem

The major problem that attracted the attention of the researcher to this study is the poor parental motivation of the students in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area in recent time. As experience has shown that there exist some differences among secondary school students which influence students’ academic performance, such as some students have problem with the provision of school uniform but others do not.

Likewise, some students are motivated by their parents through the provision of educational materials like text books and exercise books and other parents do not; equally some students come to school properly fed, others do not. These then motivated the researcher to ask whether these differences which are motivators from parents could influence the students’ academic performance in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to examine parental motivation and academic performance of students in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Specifically the study sought to:

to investigate parental assistance at home and students’ performance in Social studies in secondary schools;
to examine parental educational level and students performance in social studies in junior secondary schools; and
to examine parental income level and students performance in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will be of great significance to parents and guardians, teachers, government, educational planners and school counselors, religious and non-governmental organization in the following ways:

To the parents and guardians, the findings of this study will enable them to have the knowledge and skills to study their children very well to know their educational needs and challenges. Also to have alternative ways of motivating the children to learn in school.
To the teachers, the study will help them to develop critical and creative mind in the selection of instructional strategies which will motivate the students in the teaching/learning process.
To the school counselors, the study will provide useful information to them for the effective counseling of both parents and students on the consequences of parental motivation on academic performance.
This study will also provide direction to future researchers who may wish to further their investigation on related topic.

1.5 Research Questions

The following questions were stated to guide the study:

To what extent does the academic performance of students differ based on their parental assistance in Social studies?
To what extent does the academic performance of students differ based on their parental educational level?
To what extent does the academic performance of students differ based on their parental income in Social studies?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

The following research hypotheses were formulated in line with the research questions to guide the study:

There is no significant difference in academic performance of students whose parents assist in doing homework and those whose parents do not assist in doing homework.
There is no significant difference in academic performance of students based on their parental educational level.
There is no significant difference in academic performance of students from high-income parents and students from low-income in Social studies.

1.7 Delimitations of the Study

The study was restricted to an investigation into parental motivation and students’ academic performance in Social studies in public secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area. It is also limited in scope to selected public secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area only. Therefore research finding on the issue was not generalized as it remained valid only to selected secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area where the investigation was conducted.

Limitations of the Study

In carrying out this research, certain problems were encountered. There were difficulty in accessing some sample schools during the rainy season. Some respondents varied in their opinion, some were not able to respond correctly to items on questionnaire as expected by the researcher.

Definition of Terms

The following terms were defined as used in the study:

Parents: This refers tithe father and mother of a child whose duty is to take care and provide for the child. It may also refer to the child guardian (i.e. a person who take place of the father and mother in the absent of the real parents).

Parental Motivation: This is the characteristics of the parents that prompts, compels and energizes the students to act or behave in a particular manner at a particular time for attaining some specific goal or purpose

Motivation: Motivation may be regarded as something, which prompts, compels and energizes an individual to act or behave in a particular manner at a particular time for attaining some specific goal or purpose.

Parental Assistance: This refers to the amount of participation a parent has when it comes to schooling and her child’s education. In this study, parental assistance in education was measured in terms of assistance of students with assignments at home and parental participation in school meetings and provision of materials for learning.

Level of Educational: This means the stage one reach educationally from primary, secondary to tertiary level.

Income Level: This is the level of monetary payment receive for goods or services, or from other sources as rent or investment. In this study, income level was measured based on the total monetary payments of the parents’ goods or services, rents or investment.

Academic Performance: This is the grade or scores of students in examination or continuous assessment.

5.1 Summary

The study used a sampled size of 200 students using random sampling techniques. The instruments for data collection were structured interview on parental motivation and raw scores of students in Social Studies in First Terminal Examination in 2021/2022 academic session. The data collected were analyzed using independent t-test. Findings showed that there is a significant difference in academic performance of students whose parents assist in doing homework and those whose parents do not assist in doing homework in secondary schools; there is a significant difference in academic performance of students based on parents education in Social studies in secondary schools; also that there is a significant difference in academic performance of students based on their parental income in Social studies in secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

5.2 Recommendations

The following are recommendations were made from the findings in this study;

(1) Parents should assist their children in doing their assignment and homework at home as this will influence their academic performance in secondary schools.

(2) Parents should also show greater interest and support to the education of their children.

(3) Parents who are not formally educated should attend adult education centers to increase their educational level

(4) Guidance and counseling services should be provided for students on the importance of education.

(5) Government and corporate bodies should provide social studies learning materials such as textbooks and exercise books to assist the students from impecunious homes.

5.3 Conclusion

Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded parental assistance, educational level and income level assist in motivating the academic performances of students in social studies in secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area

5.4 Suggestions for Further Studies

The following suggestions were made for further research.

Family type and students’ academic achievement in Elementary Science.