THE
INFLUENCE OF PARENT’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS
ON
STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SOCIAL STUDIES
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The differences in the academic
performances of students of Social studies has motivated the interest of many
scholars into finding out the factors responsible for the differences in their
performance.
Research project by Tomori (2002:3.8) reported on the poor performance
by students in the written and spoken aspects of the language.
Scholar’s researches into the
differences in the academic performance of students have revealed that certain
strong hereditary and environmental influences among which are parent’s
socio-economic statuses.
Researcher’s interest was geared into
examining this problem cause of her experience during her teaching practice exercise at Irepodun
Junior High School Ijero-Ekiti, where he observed the different between the
performances of various students with deference home backgrounds.
Douglass (1994) is of the view that
the influence of parental interest on test performance is greater that of any
of the other factors: size of family, standard of home, and academic record of
the School. He also opined that at an
earlier age, waste of talent may occur through the effects of an adverse home
environment or through lack of stimulation in early life.
Jenson
(1968) maintains that the social class to which a family belongs effects both
the form and the amount of verbal interaction and this eventually creates differences in student’s learning abilities (Bernstein
1958).
Hobbs
and Blanks (19614) indicate that the family’s function in socialization has a
vital impact on personality formation and the way in which the child becomes an
adult, will respond to various life situation.
Bron Fenbrenner (1957) claims that
parental expectation from the education of their children varies by social class. He concludes that the expectation is
influential on the children’s academic activities. In Nigeria, many students who comes
from poor homes where they have no
access to newspapers, radio and television, or even their parents, have little
or no education, the motivation of students, succeeding on school may be
fluctuating. Rich parents who have
enough money to pay their children’s school fees and buy them necessary books
are directly indirectly aiding the enhanced academic performances of their children.
Datta
(1986) opined that family size affects the learning process of the child at
home because it is assumed that, the larger the family, the less the attention
that the child would receive from
parents. Eamon (2005) viewed that
students with fewer siblings are likely to receive more parental attention and
have ore access to resources that children fro large families. The additional attention and support leads to
better school performance.
Not minding the general assumptions,
this study intends to find out if the
parents’ socio-economic is actually affecting the academic performances of
students.
Purpose of the Study.
The purpose of this study
is to examine the influence of parents’
socio-economic status on students’ academic performance. It is also intended to find out the various
aspect of parents’ socio-
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