Examination of Psychosocial Correlates of Academic Performance Among Primary School Pupils

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Basic education for children is a top priority in today’s Nigerian society. All parties engaged in the process and duration of their basic education must appropriately nurture these children in order to ensure that they perform well academically and otherwise. Primary education, according to the National Policy on Education 2013, is the foundational education delivered in institutions to pupils ages 6 to 12. At this level, pupils must be exposed to the majority of life-related information, skills, values, and attitudes. Because it serves as the foundation for the rest of the educational system, the primary level is important to the system’s success or failure. In truth, primary school is the basis for all following levels of education. According to Amadi (2020), this underlines the need of good academic achievement for every child in Nigeria who attends primary school.

Academic performance is defined as how well a person performs in both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Academic achievement of students, particularly at the primary school level, is not only a barometer of school performance, but also a crucial predictor of youths’ and the nation’s future. Learning outcomes have grown in popularity, which is why academics have been working hard to identify factors that inhibit successful academic accomplishment (Aremu & Sokan, 2022). This phenomenon has been variably referred to in the literature as academic achievement or scholastic functioning. Academics, parents, legislators, and planners have taken notice of learners’ academic achievements. According to Adeyemo (2021), the fundamental goal of the school is to assist students in achieving academic achievement. According to him, the school may have a variety of secondary aims, but the primary focus is always on producing high-quality scholarship. Furthermore, practically everyone involved in education places a premium on academic performance; parents usually demand strong academic achievement from their children (Osiki, 2021).

Psycho-social variables are impacts on a person’s psychological or social well-being. Anxiety, depression, distress, and positive affect are all multidimensional constructs, as are cognitive behavior responses (satisfaction, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and locus of control), and social factors (sociometric status, education, employment, religion, ethnicity, family, physical attributes, locality, relationships with others, and change in personal roles and status) (Shin-chi, Suzuki, and Yuko 2019) Students comprehend the importance of the home environment or family structure on academic achievement. The home has a huge influence on the psychological, emotional, social, and economic well-being of the students. The status of the house effects the individual, according to Ajila and Olutola (2020), since parents are the first socializing agents in a child’s life. This is due to the fact that a child’s familial background and environment impact his attitude toward life events and level of performance. Although the school is responsible for the experiences that compose the individual’s life during school hours, the individual’s experiences at home play important roles in molding the child’s personality and shaping the child into who he is.

Parental involvement in a child’s early education has been shown to be consistently associated to a child’s academic performance (Hara & Burke, 2018). Children with more involved parents achieve higher levels of academic accomplishment than children with less active parents. Importantly, research has shown that parent-child interactions, particularly engaged and responsive parenting styles, have a major influence on a child’s intellectual development (Christian, Morrison, & Bryant, 2019). Programs to increase a child’s academic performance can be devised by assessing certain modifiable parenting behaviors, such as parent engagement, and the processes through which these practices affect academic accomplishment. While parent engagement has been related to greater academic achievement, the specific processes through which parent involvement improves a child’s academic performance are not fully understood (Hill & Craft, 2021).

Self-esteem is now regarded as a crucial factor influencing kids’ academic achievement. In psychology, self-esteem refers to a person’s total sense of self-worth or personal value. Self-esteem is generally seen as a personality trait, implying that it is consistent and long-lasting. Self-esteem can apply to a variety of self-perceptions, including one’s own appearance, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors. Self-esteem, according to (Branden, 2019), is a basic human need that is required for survival, optimal development, and growth. It has been suggested that having high self-esteem can help you achieve great academic success. Self-esteem is described as a person’s global assessments of competence in relation to one’s own self-worth (Harter, 2018). This concept emerges when children compare their self-evaluation to their actual performance in a variety of tasks. In general, high self-esteem helps people see themselves as active and capable persons capable of encouraging change via effort and establishing higher goals that result in learning new things. Interestingly, several studies have found that enhancing students’ self-esteem is the most effective technique for improving their academic performance (Rubieet al., 2021). In research, high self-esteem has also been proven to have a significant influence on academic achievement, social responsibility, and personal accountability. Those with higher academic achievement are more confident, whereas those with poor self-esteem achieve less. Keeping all of the characteristics stated by various researchers in mind, we chose just those that are acknowledged and relate to primary school settings. The majority of studies thus far tend to suggest that further study is required to disentangle the complex underpinnings of academic accomplishment.

 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Numerous psycho-social variables influence secondary school students’ academic progress across the world, notably in Nigeria. Psycho-social factors such as family support, school conduciveness, and self-efficacy influence learners’ lives and, as a result, academic achievement. There is a paucity of empirical data on the combined effects of family supportiveness, school conduciveness, and self-efficacy on academic accomplishment. Though academic accomplishment is closely tied to intellectual capacity as well as familial factors (Jacob & Harvey, 2018), a child’s ability to operate well in a social situation is crucial for optimizing intellectual potential. However, this is not necessarily the most important factor, because academic achievement is also influenced by a variety of internal situations (motivation, attitudes, personality traits, and so on) as well as external ones (method, necessities, type of academic work, school texts, etc.). According to Ikott (2019), the intellectual factor accounts for only a portion of academic results, implying that for a large number of students, poor academic achievement is primarily determined by non-intellectual factors such as high emotional insecurity, low motivation, a negative attitude, poor self-regulation, or other psycho-social unfavorable circumstances. While these concerns are understandable, there is a need to examine the role of family, teacher, and peer influence as social variables that influence a student’s cognitive efficiency and learning outcome. Thus against this backdrop this study seeks to examine psycho-social correlates of academic performance among primary school pupils.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main purpose of this study is to examine psycho-social correlates of academic performance among primary school pupils. Specifically, the study was directed:

i.          To examine how parental influence impact  academic performance.

ii.        To ascertain whether teacher influence have significant effect on academic performance.

iii.      To find out if peer group influence has significant effect on academic performance.

iv.      To ascertain if self-esteem has an effect on academic achievement.

 Research Questions

The study will address the following research questions:

i.          How does parental influence impact student academic performance?

ii.        Does teacher -student relationship significant effect on academic attainment?

iii.      Does peer group influence has significant effect on academic performance?

iv.      Does self-esteem has an effect on academic achievement?

 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

This research has implication for addressing the problems that result in poor academic performance of primary school children, especially in Lagos State. This study is therefore relevant to teachers and school administrators who may wish to ensure that pupils under their care are well nurtured in the right way in other to bring out the best in them to ensure excellent academic performance. The study is also important to Parents who expect excellent performance from their children. This will help them to understand the manner in which to interact and influence their children in order to ensure good academic performance. Schools will also benefit from this study as it will help them  to ensure that they provide adequate human resources and the right environment to give children balanced education to ensure good academic performance.This study is also relevant to Learners as it will help primary school children to make their basic education worth the while in order to have a solid foundation for higher education in the future. The Government will also be able carry out proper supervision of schools to ensure that government policy on education is being followed to ensure good academic performance by children.

 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This scope of this study borders on  psycho-social correlates of academic performance among primary school pupils. The study is limited selected primary schools in Ogbomosho local government area in Oyo State.

   LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Like in every human endeavour, the researchers encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. The significant constraint was the scanty literature on the subject owing that it is a new discourse thus the researcher incurred more financial expenses and much time was required in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size covering only selected primary schools in Ogbomosho local government area in Oyo State. Thus findings of this study cannot be used for generalization for other primary schools in other  States within Nigeria. Additionally, the researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work will impede maximum devotion to the research. Howbeit, despite the constraint  encountered during the  research, all factors were downplayed in other to give the best and make the research successful.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

For the purpose of this study, the following terms will be defined thus;

Primary School Pupils: Primary Schools pupils are children between ages 6- 11years who are given education  in formal institutions of learning known as primary school.

Primary /Elementary Education: Fafunwa (1974) defined primary education as  a system of education that helps the child to master the 3Rs that is  reading, writing and arithmetic, develop sound standard of individual conduct, acquire some skills and appearance the value of manual work. Primary education is the first stage of compulsory education coming between early childhood education and secondary education.

Academic Performance: This is the behaviour of a student that can be directly observed by evaluating what he/she has learnt during a course of study.

Psycho-social Correlates: Psycho-social Correlates   are the psychological and social factors which are related and connected in some way to influence the academic performance of a child. In this study, we shall focus on variables which are concerned with five of these factors which include Family /parental influence/ involvement, teacher influence, peer group influence and self esteem.