The Impact of Parental Motivation and Academic Performance of Students in Social Studies

The Impact of Parental Motivation and Academic Performance of Students in Social Studies

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the study

The term motivation is derived from the Latin word mover, meaning “to move”. Motivation can be broadly defined as the forces acting on or within a person that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of goal-directed, voluntary effort. Wlodkowski and Jaynes (2010) explain that in the broadest sense, motivation is “a value and a desire for learning”.

According to Mangal (2018), Motivation may be regarded as something, which prompts, compels, and energizes an individual to act or behave in a particular manner at a particular time for attaining some specific goal or purpose. But what exactly is responsible for the motivation of an individual? What are the real activating forces that push and pull an individual to move for achieving a specific goal? Psychologists have tried to provide the answer by identifying these activating forces as needs, drives, and motives.

According to Steers (2016) theories of motivation as the product of internal drives that compel an individual to act or move toward the satisfaction of individual needs. The process theories are concerned with determining how individual behavior is energized, directed, and maintained in specifically willed and self-directed human cognitive processes. Process theories of motivation are based on early cognitive theories, which posit that behavior is the result of conscious decision-making processes in which parents are the first motivators of their children in all spheres of life including education.

The role that parents play in the upbringing of a child is very important. Children look up to their parents for guidance, protection, and motivation to live a great life. One of the best ways to achieve wholesome qualities of education is the partnership of parents and teachers in injecting valuable skills, conduct, and knowledge into the students (Deutscher and Ibe, 2013). All over the world parents play a vital role in the education of their child, child’s age.

If parents pay attention to their children, they make more scholastic achievements than those who are ignored. The motivation offered by parents plays a vital role in influencing their children’s learning as well as shaping their improvement in academic attainment and achievements and their overall behavior. Some of the characteristics that parents may portray which may influence their children’s academic achievement and performance in school are parent’s education, socio-economic status, involvement in children’s education, attitudes, aspirations, and behaviour which are all important, as well as their ability to understand their child’s day-to-day progress in school and talking regularly with their child about their learning (Carbonel, Banggawan and Agbisit, 2013).

The Impact of Parental Motivation and Academic Performance of Students in Social Studies

These are various parental characteristics that may be a major challenge for students in secondary schools. Although many risk factors associated with underachievement are difficult to alter, the participation of parents in their children’s education has been shown to positively impact the learning outcomes of the children in school. Furthermore, some parents have higher educational aspirations for their children but are less involved at home and school (Kuperminc, Darnell, and Alvarez-Jimenez, 2012). The characteristics of parents are conceptualized as affecting the academic performance of their children. One of the characteristics such as family background can contribute to either shaping or destroying their performance.

According to an observation made by Pinantoan (2013), students with two parents operating in supportive roles are 52 percent more likely to enjoy school and get good marks than students whose parents are disengaged with what’s going on at school. This is especially the case during the earliest years of schooling, in Kindergarten through the primary school level, when students with active parents are almost twice as likely to succeed. Once students enter secondary school, the effect diminishes slightly possibly because they are maturing during this time but there is still a 22 percent difference.

In Nigeria, education achievement is one of the most important aspects of society. This is because in developing nations academic achievement is one of the keys to the development and growth of both the individual and the society. Thus, the characteristics portrayed by parents in the education of their children is important in ensuring that the students focus on their studies and are able to have good academic performance. In Akwa Ibom State for instance, the characteristics of parents or guardians towards the learning of children are associated positively with students’ performance in school (Eno, Uwem, and Osei-Akoto, 2012).

According to Amukowa and Karue (2013) among the key causes of poor performance in education, characteristics such as parental involvement and parental education as well as family background have a major impact on pupils’ academic achievement. Most research has dwelled on poor facilities and finances as among the key causes of poor academic performance among many students in public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State (Samuel, 2016). Therefore with the numerous advantages that accrue from the involvement of parents in education, it is imperative that this study be carried out on parental motivation and students’ academic performance in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

It can also be recognized that there are various parental factors that influence greatly how children get to interact with their friends in the outside world. One of the key factors as observed by Khasakhala, (2013) includes parenting behavior. The parenting characteristic has been observed to largely influence the prevalence of depression among youths attending general health facilities and those in secondary schools (Weissman, Wickramaratne, and Bruder, 2015). The level of income of the parent is another factor that assists parents to be classified socially to different strata in society which may play important role in the academic performance of the students in secondary schools and universities.

According to Samuel (2014), the level of income is the amount of money the parents (father and mother) receive monthly, weekly, or daily from their occupational activities. Samuel emphasized that the level of income of the parents may be determined by the level of education the parents attain and this may influence the level of exposure of the parents which makes the parents be versatile in encouraging the children academically. The children of these rich parents may be inherently motivated to be like their parents when they grow and this will make them study well in school.

The Impact of Parental Motivation and Academic Performance of Students in Social Studies

On the other hand children from poor parents are more likely to experience learning disabilities and developmental delays than children from rich parents. Although some students from poor backgrounds are motivated and encouraged by their parents academically by providing home teachers for these children at home, this tends to increase the intrinsic motivation of the children and increase their academic performance in school.

This is an indication that indeed parental motivation needs to be effectively looked into as to how it affects the academic performance of students. This, therefore, motivated the present research on parental motivation and students’ academic performance in social studies in junior in secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

1.2   Statement of the problem

The major problem that attracted the attention of the researcher to this study is the poor parental motivation of the students in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area in recent times. As experience has shown that there exist some differences among secondary school students which influence students’ academic performance, such as some students have problems with the provision of school uniforms but others do not.

Likewise, some students are motivated by their parents through the provision of educational materials like textbooks and exercise books, and other parents do not; equally some students come to school properly fed, while others do not. These then motivated the researcher to ask whether these differences which are motivators from parents could influence the student’s academic performance in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

The Impact of Parental Motivation and Academic Performance of Students in Social Studies

• Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to examine parental motivation and academic performance of students in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Specifically, the study sought to:

1. to investigate parental assistance at home and students’ performance in Social studies in secondary schools;
2. to examine the parental educational level and students’ performance in social studies in junior secondary schools; and
3. to examine parental income level and students’ performance in social studies in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

1.4     Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will be of great significance to parents and guardians, teachers, government, educational planners and school counselors, and religious and non-governmental organizations in the following ways:

1. To the parents and guardians, the findings of this study will enable them to have the knowledge and skills to study their children very well to know their educational needs and challenges. Also to have alternative ways of motivating the children to learn in school.
2. To the teachers, the study will help them to develop critical and creative minds in the selection of instructional strategies which will motivate the students in the teaching/learning process.
3. To the school counselors, the study will provide useful information to them for the effective counseling of both parents and students on the consequences of parental motivation on academic performance.
4. This study will also provide direction to future researchers who may wish to further their investigation on related topics.

1.5     Research Questions

The following questions were stated to guide the study:

1. To what extent does the academic performance of students differ based on their parental assistance in Social studies?
2. To what extent does the academic performance of students differ based on their parental educational level?
3. To what extent does the academic performance of students differ based on their parental income in Social studies?

1.6   Research Hypothesis

The following research hypotheses were formulated in line with the research questions to guide the study:

1. There is no significant difference in the academic performance of students whose parents assist in doing homework and those whose parents do not assist in doing homework.
2. There is no significant difference in the academic performance of students based on their parental educational level.
3. There is no significant difference in the academic performance of students from high-income parents and students from low-income in Social studies.