INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL SUPPORT ON ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN UDI EDUCATION ZONE OF ENUGU STATE

Abstract

The study examined the influence of parental support on secondary school students’ academic self-concept in Udi Educational zone, Enugu State. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The population of this study comprised 13,030 teachers and students from public secondary schools in Udi Education Zone. The teachers are 1,162 while students are 11,868. A sample size of six hundred and fifty-two (652) were drawn from the population of teachers and students using simple random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a 18-item questionnaire titled: Influence of Parental Support on Students Academic Self-Concept  (IPSSASQ). The copies of the instrument were validated by three experts, two from Psychology and Counselling and one from Measurement and Evaluation in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. Cronbach Coefficient Alpha statistics was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument which yielded correlation coefficient of .83. Seven briefed research assistants helped in the administration and collection of the instrument. Descriptive statistics such as mean was used to analyze data for the research questions, standard deviation was used to determine the closeness of the respondents’ mean. Inferential statistics of t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed among others that Parental support influences the secondary school students’ academic self-conceptto a high extent. Based on the findings, it was concluded that parental support influence the secondary school students’ academic self-concept to a high extent. Parental financial support, parental motivation support and parental academic support influence the secondary school students’ academic self-concept.  The study recommended among others that governments and school management should identify and map out financial supports to students from low income parents so as to enhance the self-conceptwhile parents and teachers should devote more time to provide motivational and academic support and guidance to the students in order to enhance their self-concept