LINK BETWEEN LOCUS OF CONTROL, PARENT EDUCATIONAL UPBRINGING AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA  

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the relationship among locus of control, parent educational background and academic performance in Social Studies among secondary school students in Niger State, Nigeria. The study employed correlational design. The study was also guided by three (3) research questions and three (3) hypotheses. The population of the study consists of 105,034 Junior Secondary School Students in Niger State, Minna. A sample size of 370 was randomly selected proportionate through stratified sampling technique and used for the study. Three (3) instruments namely: Locus of Control Scale (LCS); Parent Educational Background Scale (BEBS) and Social Studies Performance Test (SSPT) were used for the study. Percentage, mean, standard deviation (SD), Pearson Product Moment Correlation (r) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses of the study. Findings revealed that significant relationship exists between internal locus of control and academic performance of Junior Secondary School students in Social studies (r = 0.717; p = 0.013), significant difference exists between external locus of control and academic performance of JSS students in Social studies (r = 0.721; p = 0.019), significant difference exists differences between internal locus of control and parents‟ parent educational background of Junior Secondary School Students (f = 9.331; p = 0.0029), significant difference exists between external locus of control and parents‟ educational background of Junior Secondary School Students (f = 7.971, p = 0.009) and significant difference also exists between parents educational background and academic performance of Junior Secondary School Students (f = 7.101; p = 0.004). On the basis of these findings, the following recommendations were made: parents, teachers, school psychologists and counsellors should be sensitized on students‟ locus of control and parent educational background as powerful predictor of academic performance among secondary school students; seminar, workshops and conferences should be organized to all stakeholder in education on the relationship between locus of control and parent educational background as it affects students‟ academic performance in schools.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1   Background to the study

Locus of control refers to an individual‟s generalized expectations concerning where control over subsequent events reside. Locus of Control is an individual‟s belief system regarding the causes of his or her experiences and the factors to which that person attributes success or failure. In other words, who or what is responsible for what happens.

It is a common practice among Nigerians to attribute the cause of any problem they encounter to powerful others or forces beyond their control. Various types of problems that could have ordinarily been caused either by our negligence or carelessness, are often attributed to external forces. For instance some people attribute the frequent accidents that occur on some highways to demons or devils that are

interested in sucking human blood. Paradoxically, the said „devils‟ reduce the rate at which they suck blood immediately attention is given to such roads through either reconstruction or rehabilitation exercise by the government, or when drivers become more careful in driving their vehicles on our roads.

Most times too, married ladies who committed abortions during pre-marital periods and who by so doing have damaged some vital reproductive organs attribute barrenness to the effects of charms inflicted on them by their step mothers or mothersin-law.  A typical village woman who does not know the importance of antenatal care during pregnancy of giving the child balanced diet at infancy, often attribute premature death of such children to devil‟s work. There is hardly anything in Nigeria that is not attributed to forces outside the individual‟s control. This attribution problem does not exclude the students in the secondary schools. They oftentimes attribute their failure in examinations to their stepmother or aunt who does not like them, or even their teachers.

The manner in which people attribute causes of failure or success is simply regarded by the psychologists as locus of control. The locus of control construct refers to the degree to which an individual believes the occurrence of reinforcements is contingent on his/her own behaviour (Rotter, 1954). Locus of control can be divided into two, that is: Internal and External. People with an internal locus of control believe that they control their own destiny. They also believe that their own experiences are controlled by their own skills or efforts. On the other hand, people who have an external locus of control tend to attribute their experiences to fate, chance, or luck.  Students who attribute their successes or failures to having a bad day, or unfair

grading procedures on their teachers‟ part, can be said to have external locus of control. These students might say, “It doesn‟t matter how hard I study, the teacher just doesn‟t like me, so I know I won‟t get a good grade.” These students generally don‟t learn from previous experience. Since they attribute both their successes and failures to luck or chance, they tend to lack persistence and not have very high levels of expectation (Rotter, 1954). As for parents‟ educational background, Valleymalay (2012) asserts that parents are the most important and influential elements on the lives of their children. They have the power, ability to shape, sustain and develop their children who will be interested, creative and tolerant, through their positive involvement in the learning process and educational activities.

Parental involvement in enhancing the child‟s academic performance takes many forms, which include good parenting in the home, the provision of  secure and stable environment, intellectual stimulation, parent-child-discussion, good models of constructive social and educational values and high aspirations relating to personal fulfillment and good citizenship, contact with schools to share information, participation in school events, participation in the work of the school and above all participation in the school governance (Desforges & Abeuchaar, 2003).

Parents of different class status often have different styles of child rearing, different ways of disciplining their children and different ways of reacting to their

children‟s behaviours. These differences do not express themselves consistently as expected in the case of every family; rather they influence the average tendencies of families for different educational classes (Rothestien, 2004). Hill, Castelino, Lansford, Nowlin, Dodge, Bates & Petti (2004), have also argued that parent educational background of parents do not only affect the academic performance, but also make it possible for children from low background to compete well with their counterparts from high educational background under the same academic environment.

Undoubtedly, a child‟s capability to succeed in school depends on how

successfully the child is managed by his/her parents where the child learns the skills, attitudes and behaviour which could mould them into productive and successful students. Unfortunately, not every child comes from a home that could provide them with the requisite educational resources necessary for their academic performance.

Hence, parents‟ parent educational background impacts greatly on the child‟s educational outcomes (Valleymalay, 2012). Families where the parents are advantaged socially, educationally and economically foster a high level of achievement in their children because children form high educational backgrounds are well exposed to scholastic materials, which aid their performance.

Academic performance implies how well student meets standards set out by local authority or institution itself (Hughes, 2004). Also in their perception of academic performance, Hatcher & Paul (1996) see academic performance as how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different tasks given to them by their teachers. Academic performance in this research will be characterized by performance in tests, and performance in examination of Junior Secondary School Students and to find out how their performance in Social studies is affected by locus of control variable and parent educational background of their parents.

 

1.2       Statement of the Problem

It has been observed with great concern the way people attribute causes of their successes and failures outside themselves and blame others or attribute them to chance of luck. This manner of attributing causes to other people or forces referred to as external locus of control has made many people develop dependency attitudes and they do not see themselves as capable of proffering solutions to the problems they encounter in life.

Locus of control is an individual‟s belief system regarding the causes of his or her experiences and the factors to which that person attributes success or failure.

Secondary school students are not exampled in this manner of orientation or locus of control. Many students‟ locus of control seem to be that of external control because of the way they attribute their successes or failures to having a bad day or unfair grading

procedures on the part of their teachers or even God‟s will. These students might say, “it doesn‟t matter how hard I study, the teacher just doesn‟t like me, so I wont get a good grade.” This makes them not to bother to think of developing strategies of studying in order to pass. It should however be noted that some students may not possess external locus of control, but generally believe that their successes of failures are as a result of their effort and hard work and might blame poor grades on their failure to study hard. Therefore, one of the problems of this research is to determine the direction of locus of control of secondary school students and whether it has any relationship with their academic performance.

As for parent educational background, there is a general assertion that parental educational background can have possible effects on the academic performance of children in school. Parent educational background is a person‟s overall position which is characterized by an individual‟s achievements in education, employment, educational status and income. In Nigeria, and indeed among families, parent educational background is characterized by parental income, parental level of education and parental occupation.

There is the argument that children from high parent educational background families perform much better at school compared to child from low parent educational background families. Parents with high parent educational background often have a

wide range of resources to promote and support their children‟s schooling. Inadequate resources and limited access to resources can negatively affect families decisions regarding their children‟s development and learning. As a result, children from families with low parent educational background are less prepared than their counterparts from families with high parent educational background. Therefore, another problem of this study was to find out if there was any relationship between

parents‟ educational background, specifically parents‟ educational level and academic performance of secondary school students in Niger State. Moreover, the academic performance of secondary school students in many subjects, social studies inclusive in Niger State has witnessed low performance for some time. There is the urgent need to address the problem to help the students and the entire system through research of this nature.

 

1.3       Objectives of the Study

The following objectives guided the study:

1. To determine the relationship between internal locus of control and academic performance of Junior Secondary School Students.
2. To determine the relationship between external locus of control and academic performance of Junior Secondary School Students.
3. To establish the differences in internal locus of control between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School Students.
4. To determine the differences in external locus of control between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School

Students.

5. To determine the differences in academic performance between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School

Students.

 

1.4        Research Questions

The following questions guided the study:

1. What is the relationship between internal locus of control and academic. Performance of Junior Secondary School Students?
2. What is the relationship between external locus of control and academic performance of Junior Secondary School Students?
3. What is the differences in internal locus of control between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School Students?
4. What is the differences in external locus of control between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School Students?
5. What is the differences in academic performance between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School

Students?

 

 

 

 

1.5        Hypotheses

The research tested the following null hypotheses:

1. There is no significant relationship between internal locus of control and academic performance of Junior Secondary School Students.
2. There is no significant relationship between external locus of control and academic performance of Junior Secondary School Students.
3. There is no significant differences in internal locus of control between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School Students.
4. There is no significant differences in external locus of control between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School Students.
5. There is no significant differences in academic performance between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School

Students.

 

1.6        Basic Assumptions

For the purpose of this study, the following assumptions were made:

1. Significant relationship may exist between internal locus of control and academic performance of JSS students.
2. Significant relationship may exist between external locus of control and academic performance of JSS students.
3. Significant differences may exist in internal locus of control between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School Students.
4. Significant differences may exist in external locus of control between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School Students.
5. Significant differences may exist in academic performance between students from different parents educational background in Junior Secondary School

Students.

 

1.7       Significance of the Study

The finding of this study will add value to theory building in cognitive, personality development, most especially parent educational background, locus of control among Junior Secondary School Students.

It will help the Junior Secondary School Students to know the perceived attribution to their success or failure in life and adjust appropriately to enhances or improve in their academic performance in social studies in particular.

It is also hoped that this study will provide, findings that can inform future research, family care agencies, educational institutions, social work agencies and interventions, the importance of parental involvement and their role in helping their children to have better education. The research would provide parents with knowledge and better understanding of their role at home.

Subject to the outcome of this study, it is presumed that the identified areas where government at different levels could come in will be brought into focus in order to bridge the gap of academic performance between low and high parental status in the society by mounting special educational programmes in the school.

On the part of the counsellors, the findings of this study is expected to assist the counsellors to understood the direction of locus of control so that they will help students see the need to develop internal locus of control for them to attribute causes to certain life events to themselves and not blaming them on others.

However, for these stakeholders to benefit from this study, the findings or results of the study could be published in journals, and other print media, television and radio programmes could also be mounted to feed the members of the public on the benefits of the study. Also, seminars and workshops could be organized for the stakeholders to have direct benefit from the findings of this study. Furthermore, parents in particular can understand the benefits of this study through the Parents Teachers‟ Association and school based management committee meetings. This can be done by the head teacher or school counselor who might have benefited from the study.

1.8       Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The research was designed to find out the relationship between locus of control, parents‟ educational background and academic performance of the one hundred and five thousand, thirty four (105,034) Junior Secondary School Student spread across the two hundred and six (206) Junior Secondary Schools in Niger State.

However, the study was delimited to only twenty four (24) Junior Secondary Schools using three hundred and seventy (370) students randomly selected. Also, locus of control of the students was considered in the context of internal and external locus of control. The parent educational background of the parents was also considered, but focused on parental educational level only.

LINK BETWEEN LOCUS OF CONTROL, PARENT EDUCATIONAL UPBRINGING AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA  

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