Students’ Perceived Influence of Broken Homes on their Academic Achievement in Secondary Schools in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

Aims: This study seeks to determine students perceived influence of broken homes on their academic achievement in secondary schools in Anambra State. Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out in Anambra State, Nigeria, conducted between August 2021 and January 2022. Methodology: The design for this study is the descriptive survey research design. The sample size of 420 SS II adolescents (male=262, female=158) gotten through multistage sampling procedure where disproportionate stratified sampling techniques was used to select 5 senior secondary schools from the existing 3 local governments in Onitsha education zone. Secondly, the purposive sampling technique was adopted to sample students from broken homes. To achieve this, a questionnaire on broken homes was administered to secondary schools’ students through this, the sample of the study was drawn and it amounted to 420 secondary school II students from broken homes. The instrument for data collection is a 21 – item structured questionnaire titled “Influence of Broken Homes on Academic Achievement Questionnaire (IBAAQ)”. The face and content validation of the instrument was conducted by two experts in the Department of Guidance and Counselling and one from the Department of Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha statistics and yielded a reliability statistic of 0.715. The data collected was analysed using Mean, Standard Deviation (Mean±STD) and t-test for independent sample. Results: This study revealed that equal number of the items on students’ perceived influence of broken homes on their academic achievement in English language in secondary schools were rated as agreed to as well as disagreed. More so, there is a significant difference in the mean rating of male and female students on the perceived influence of broken homes on their academic achievement in English Language in secondary schools in Anambra state. Majority of the items raised were agreed to by secondary school students in Anambra state, there is no significant difference in the mean rating of students in urban and rural areas on the perceived influence of broken homes on their academic achievement in Mathematics in secondary schools in Anambra state. Conclusion: it was concluded that equal number of items raised on students’ perceived influence of broken homes on their academic achievement in English language in secondary schools were rated as agreed to as well as disagreed. This study further concluded to have a significant difference in the mean rating of male and female students on the perceived influence of broken homes on their academic achievement in English Language in secondary schools in Anambra state. On the other hand, there is no significant difference in the mean rating of students in urban and rural areas on the perceived influence of broken homes on their academic achievement in Mathematics in secondary schools in Anambra state.