TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgements iv
Abstract v
Tale of contents vi
CHAPTER ONE: Introduction 1
1.1
Background to the Problem 1
1.2
Statement of the Problem 6
1.3
Purpose of the Study 6
1.4
Research Questions 7
1.5
Hypotheses 8
1.6
Significance of the Study 8
1.7
Limitations of the Study 9
1.8
Scope of the Study 10
1.9
Definition of Terms 10
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 12
1.0
Introduction 13
1.1
The Infancy Years 15
1.2
Influence of Parental Conflict Factor on Academic
Performance 19
1.3
Influence of Broken Home Factor on Academic Performance 21
1.4
Influence of Single Parenthood Factor on Academic
Performance 23
1.5
Influence of Parental Discipline Factor on Academic
Performance 26
1.6
Influence of Home Factor on Academic Performance 30
1.7
Influence of Socio-economic Factor on Academic Performance 32
1.8
Influence of Family Size Factor on Academic Performance 36
1.9
Influence of Birth Order Factor on Academic Performance 38
1.10
Summary of Review 39
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY 41
1.0
Introduction 41
1.1
Research Design 41
1.2
Population of the study 42
1.3
Sample size and sampling technique 42
1.4
Research instrument 43
1.5
Procedure for Data Collection 43
1.6
Procedure for Data Analysis 43
3.7 Administration
of Instrument 44
3.8 Procedure
for Data Analysis 44
CHAPTER FOUR: Data Analyses and Interpretation of Results 45
4.0 Introduction 45
4.1 Testing of Hypothesis 45
4.2 Summary
of Findings 49
CHAPTER FIVE: Discussion of Findings, Summary,
and Recommendations 51
5.1
Introduction 51
5.2
Discussion of Findings 51
5.3
Summary of the Study 55
5.4
Conclusions 56
5.5 Recommendation 57
References 60
Appendices 64
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the
Problem
The problem of decline in the academic
achievement of children in the pre-primary and primary school levels has become
a social problem for the Nigerian educators today.
The importance
of the early years intellectual development in the individual’s life cannot be
over emphasized. A successful education of the child during the schooling
periods depends a great deal on the king of environment the child is exposed
to, the experiences the child had and most of all, the kind of assistance the
child gets from his/her parents.
What a person becomes later in life
depends largely on the acceptance or welcoming as well as the attention the
child or the individual receives from the parents and the environment in which
the child grows. This could make or mar the academic performance or achievement
of such an individual all through the stages/levels of education.
Osanyin (2002) has it that “A child’s
intellectual or academic achievement is dependent on the active engagement the
child is involved in the environment”.
This means that the child therefore
needs things to play with, talk about, look at, reach out for and kick. The
child also needs to be exposed to objects of different colours, sounds, shapes,
sizes and materials. There is also the need for an adult to play with, talk to,
touch, suspense, attend to and respond to the child in question. It was also
stated that the quality of intervention and stimulation the child is provided
with go a long way to influence the child’s total development be it physically,
socially, academic etc.
As the child grows, his parents,
siblings, peers and other members of his immediate environment have a great
influence on him. They help the child to develop or form attitude, beliefs and
habits.
In Nigeria today, just like in many
other countries in the world, comes the pressure by organizations like United
Nations Organisation (UNO) or its agencies United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the government that parents
should be more concerned and committed to the care and well-being of their
children. In 1973, Nigeria’s former Head of State Genera Yakubu Gowon expressed
the Nation’s concern during his address on the occasion of the children’s day
celebration:
“Children constitute the most important
assets to a nation as the future building of any nation defends on how well
they have been groomed at different stages of development until adulthood. It
is here that our responsibilities for the children whether as parents,
guardian, institutions/schools or guardians or institution/schools or
government come into play.
Our foremost tasks therefore, is to
provide the child to the best of our ability with all the essential needs for
his or her harmonious and healthy development” (General Yakubu Gowon, 1973).
An individual is expected to make his
or her contributions towards the children’s development in any given society.
But whatever societal expectations are, there is need for a strong and
functional support as well as motivation from the home, since it seems that the
role of parents in the education of their children have been ignored. The
family role with particular reference to parental involvement in the child’s
education has long be recognized in writings.
For instance, Hess and Caft (1981)
qualified parents as “first school”. Also parental influences seem to children
(Olneck and Bills, 1979; Musgroe, 1968).
Several reasons are associated to
either positive or negative academic performance (Hess and Caft, 1981). These
include the influence of the home such as social class, parental education,
occupation, family size, economic status, parental attitude towards education,
instability at home and emotional disturbance. Other factors are school’s
distance and change one school to the other, non-provision of extra moral
coaching and so forth. However, whatever the factors or influences are always
in the centre of the picture is the child; but on each side of him is a parent.
This brings closer to us what this study is all about; that is the influence of
some parental factors on academic performance of the child.
It seems some parents are careless
about their children’s progress in school. This concern is greatest about the
time of transition from the earliest to the latest level of education.
Therefore, parents should be more concerned about the nature of the influence
they have on their children. Dale et al (1965) supported by saying: although
the school provides the machinery, the main spring comes from the home.
Therefore, behind the failure of a child often lies the failure of a home,
conversely, the success of a child often springs from the support given by
understanding and loving parents.
Parents fare varied as human race. Some
are not, some are educationists and some would refute the description with
vigour but nearly all are interested in the children.
It now depends on how the interest is
being dispensed by different parents on their children to enhance intrinsic
motivation towards effective learning in children.
Spedek (1973) identified certain
limitations among parents with respect to their contributions towards the
education of their children. He observed that some parents do not know that
they are or should be their children’s teachers to complement the effort of the
school.
Some do not understand what behaviours
on their part help a child to learn things and what they can do to inhibit
learning.
Furthermore, the parents who seem
endowed with many material possessions may also fail to provide specific
opportunities that might enable their children and develop to match their
aspirations. Some parents own needs and concern sometimes take precedence over
their children’s need and this may prevent them from providing what one will
think so natural.
1.2
Statement of the
Problem
Having experience and having close
contact with children in my few years as a teacher, this has given the
researcher this opportunity to encounter children with different intellectual
abilities. It was observed that some children have problems with identifying
objects or numbers (figures), reading, writing and manipulation of objects
while some children can manipulate toys and other play materials, read and write
very well compared to some other children.
This has motivated the researcher to go
into this study in order to find out some likely factors responsible for the
shortcoming in these children and suggest possible solutions that will help the
children that have poor or low academic achievement and encourage or motivate
those that are doing well with their academics.
1.3
Purpose of the
Study
In view of the problem stated above,
this study is to address the extent to which some parental factors that are
responsible for the academic achievement of pupils. It is assumed that the
parental factors will have some implications on the academic performance of
pupils in any pre-primary and primary institutions.
This study is to find out:
2.
The roles parents play in a child’s education.
3.
How parents can influence their children positively to
achieve in school and
4.
Suggest steps to be taken by parents in order to avoid poor
or low academic achievement of their children in school.
1.4
Research
Questions
This study will profer solutions or
provide answers to the following questions:
1.
Does the parental level of education have any effect on
their children’s academic performance?
2.
Do pupils whose parents surprise their school work perform
better than students who do not have that privilege?
3.
Do pupils whose parents provide remedial lessons perform
better than pupils who do not have such attention?
4.
Do pupils from small family size perform better than those
from large family size?
1.5
Hypotheses
Going by the above research questions,
the following hypotheses will be tested at in null forms:
1.
There will be no significant relationship between the
academic performance of pupils and parental level of education.
2.
There will be no significant relationship between parental
supervision of school work and academic performance of pupils.
3.
There will be no significant relationship between parental
provision of remedial lessons and academic achievement of pupils.
4.
There will be no significant relationship between family
size and academic performance of pupils.
1.6
Significance of
the Study
Investigation into the past performance
of pupils in the pre-primary and primary has shown that some children still
find it difficult to perform above average in their academics.
This study is aimed at finding out the
effect that parental factors have on the academic achievement of their children
and suggest possible solutions to these factors.
It is hoped that the findings of this
research will help parents to realize their roles towards the performance of
their children in schools. Hence, it is to enable them identify these important
aspects of parental factors that influence academic performance of children in
school. It will therefore be left to parents to create favourable home
environment within their limit or reach.
It will also contribute to help them
identify and examine the extent to which parents influence the academic
performance of their children in school.
This investigations or findings will
also be beneficial to teachers, educators and school counsellors in their
dealings with pupils’ problems during their school time.
1.7
Limitations of
the Study
Time, personnel and finance have really
limited the scope of the study. Time is seen as a constraint because of the
short period within which the study is to be completed.
Lack of personnel and finance to carry
out the research on a large population has also restricted the study to a few
locations in Ikeja Local Education District of Lagos State, it is hence
recommended that the result of this study should be generalized to other local
government areas within Lagos and its immediate environs.
Care should be applied when making
generalization beyond this scope.
1.8
Scope of the
Study
The research was carried out using
parents from four locations in Ikeja Local Government Education District.
1.9
Definition of
Terms
Some term require vivid clarification
for ease of comprehension in their contextual use. The terms are defined and
delimited for this study only. They include the following:
Parental
Factors:
This refers to parental educational qualification, occupation, supervision of
children homework, provision of remedial lessons and family size.
Academic
Performance:
This is the display of knowledge attained on a skill developed in school
subjects, usually designated by test scores, by marks assigned by teachers or
by both. For the purpose of this study academic performance will be used
interchangeably with academic achievement.
Family
Size:
This means the number of people in a family, which includes the father, mother,
the children and other family dependents.
Reinforcement: The process of
adding a stimuli into a situation or remaining a stimulus from situation.
Positive
Reinforcement:
This is a process of adding any stimulus (reward) into a situation to increase
the probability of its re-occurrence.
Negative
Reinforcement:
This is a process whereby a stimulus is removed from a situation to increase
the probability of its occurrence.
Parental
Supervision of Homework: This means when parents create enough time to review the
children’s academic activities.
Remedial
Lessons
This is the provision of extra-moral classes apart from the children’s
registered school lessons.
Parental
Occupation:
Is parent’s job or profession through which the family earns their living.
Parental
Education Qualification: This is the level of educational attainment of parents.