PARENT’S SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL STATUS AS A CORRELATES OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BENUE AND NASSARAWA STATES

Abstract

The study investigated the parent’s social and financial status as correlates of academic achievement of Senior Secondary School Students in Benue and Nassarawa States of Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted correlational survey design. The population of the study consisted of 53, 676 SS2 Students, while the sample size of 1,072 students from 10 out of 571 public Secondary Schools in Benue and Nassarawa States were used for the study. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select the respondents. Two instruments were used to collect data. These are: Home Environment Inventory (HEI) and Students Academic Achievement Report (SAAR). HEI consisted of 14 items while the Student Academic Achievement Report (SAAR) consisted of the SS2 Students final year scores in English Language and Mathematics in 2020/2021academic session. Cronbach Alpha method was used to established internal consistency and it
yielded 0.91. Data were analyzed using Pearson Product Movement Correlation Coefficient to answer research questions and to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Thefindings of the study revealed that parent’s financial status has direct and positive relationshipwith academic achievement of Senior Secondary School Students while parent social statushas no significant relationship with academic achievement of Senior SecondarySchool
Student. It was recommended that parents should develop and improve their financial status since low financial status constitute a threat to payment of students School fees and purchase of learning materials which could have negative impact in the Academic Achievement of their children. While parents with low or high social status should create emotional climate that is favorable for their children’s learning.