AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF FAMILY STRUCTURE AND MOTIVATION AS PREDICTORS OF STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

In time past, investigations of the factors/effects that influence motivation on academic achievement of students have attracted and concern of teachers, counselors psychologist, researchers and school administrators in Nigeria.

The academic achievements of students at all levels in Nigeria have attracted much criticism from all and sundry from time immemorial. The decline in the academic achievement of students in Nigeria universities had been observed by Bamidele (2014). She identified that the system need restructuring. Bamidele went further to say that the government must put genuine effort into empowering and monitoring the system to improve the standard of student’s academic achievement.

The academic achievement of students has been of great concern of educationalists and guidance and counselors in particular. This is because of the public outlines concerning the low standard of education in the country. The declining quality of education in the country and graduates with little technical know-how has resulted in serious setbacks to the individual development of the nation. Different factors are capable of influencing that academic achievement of university students, such factor maybe the student’s internal state (intelligence, state of health, motivation, anxiety, etc.) and their environment (availability of suitable learning environment, adequacy of educational infrastructure like textbooks and well equipped laboratories). Investigation of these factor has produced several findings by researchers.

The family structure in this context refers to the way a household or family setup. It is different for every family as families may have single parents or two parents or may even have step parents involved. The family structure (single parent or two parent) lays the psychological, moral, spiritual and motivational foundations in the overall development of the child. The mother’s significant role in this cannot be over emphasized.

The family, being a powerful influence on the child and its importance as primary agent of socialization could in doubt enhance or hinder the academic achievement of the child depending on the social climate in the family. Variance in psycho social emotional fortification in the family structure could be indicator to high or low academic performance of student. Research on this aspect has not been exhaustively looked into in Nigeria where this family system exist bearing in mind the intervening effect of high and low socio economic status and emotional stability of students which is a prerequisite to academic achievement (Adesehinwa, 2013) Thus parenthood is a responsibility of the full cooperation of both parents who must ensure the total development of their offspring.

There is an awareness of the importance of the home environment or family motivation and structure on student’s academic achievement. The family has a great impact on the students psychological, emotional, and social and economics state. In the view of Ajilate and Olutala (2006), the state of home affects the individual since the parents are the first socializing agents in an individual’s life. This is because the family background and context of a child affect his reaction to life situations and his level of performance.

Although the school is responsible for the experiences at home tremendous role in building the personality of the child and making the child what he hate. Although the home environment or family has been recognized as having a lot of influence on the academic achievement of students structurally family is either single parent or two parent, single parent family in the context is one that is not structurally intact for various reasons, death of a parent, divorce, separation, desertion and illegitimacy, in which the family was never completed. It’s against this background that this study was conceived to investigate the effect of family structure and motivation to academic achievement of students in university of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue State.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The differential scholastic achievement of students in Nigeria has been and still a source of concern and research interest to educators, government and parents. This is so because of the great importance that education has on the national development of the country, there is a consensus of opinion about the fallen standard of education in Nigeria (Adebule, 2007).

Academic success depends on a variety of factor and can have both a positive and/or negative influence on child’s ability to stay motivated and succeed in school. For students living in high poverty, urban environments, there are increased challenges when it comes to succeeding in school (Murray and Malingren, 2005). The current investigation is an effort to better understand the relationship between students from positive motivated family and those from negatively motivated family and the effect it has on the academic achievement of students in university of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue state.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to examine family structure and motivation as of academic achievement of students in university of Agriculture makurdi, Benue state.

Specifically, the study intent to:

1. Find out the academic achievement of students from a positive motivated family.
2. Investigate academic achievement of students from a negative motivated family.
3. Determine academic achievement of students from a single parent family structure.
4. Determine academic achievement of students from a two parent family’s structure in University of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue State.

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions guide the study:

1. What is the academic achievement of students from positive motivated families in University of Agriculture Makurdi?
2. What is the academic achievement of students from negative motivated Families University of Agriculture Makurdi?
3. What is the academic achievement of students from a single parent family structure in University of Agriculture Makurdi?
4. What is the academic achievement of students from two parent family structure in University of Agriculture Makurdi?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

H01: There is no significance difference between the academic achievements of students from positive motivated families in university of Agriculture Makurdi.

H02: There is no significance difference between the academic achievements of students from negative motivated families in university of Agriculture Makurdi.

H03: There is no significance difference between the academic achievements of students from a single parent family structure in university of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue state.

H04: There is no significance difference between the academic achievements of students from a two parent family structure in university of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue state.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study is significant in a number of ways. The findings of the studies are great relevance to parents, student’s policy makers, curriculum designers and researchers. Through this study, students would come understand their role as students and take decisive steps towards overcoming their parent’s negative influence while utilizing the positive ones in enhancing their academic achievement. It is also hopeful that the study will serve as a source of information for the government to organize and address the obstacles hindering effective academic achievement of students and again to employ more school counselors in institution of learning, to provide guidance service to students, especially students from single parent family structure.

This study will also help the policy makers to formulate policies that will be of assistance and psychological support for students from single parent family and negatively motivated families, so as to overcome their emotional problems. The study will equally help parents to understand the implication consequences of parental motivation, separation and this mobilize all resources to curtail the problems arising from the situation. This could serve as a source of motivation to students. It is the opinion of the researcher that, the findings of this study would provide valuable information, which will help the general public to improve the academic achievement of single parent students in universities. The recommendations that could emerged from the findings could be apply in solving societal problems.

1.7 Scope of Study

The study focus on single and two parent students in the university of Agriculture Makurdi; The context scope of the study involves students from 100-400 level of college of Agriculture and science Education, college of Management science and college of science in the university of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue state.

1.8 Definition of Terms

The following keyboards have been defined as used in this study by the research.

i. Education Achievement:

Is the level quality of attainment shown by an individual after a given learning task. (Coetzec, 2011).

ii. Intact Family:

Is a two parents family, husband and wife being together. It’s also refer to families in which both biological parents are present in the home (Nyarka, 2010).

iii. Single Parenthood:

Is a phenomenon where by the care and training of a child is undertaken by only one of the father or mother as a result of death of spouse, divorce, separation and never married (Kaush and Own, 2009).

iv. Motivation:

Is a theoretical construct used to explain behavior. It gives the reasons for people’s actions, desires and needs. Motivation can also be defined.