CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

People are formed in their homes, and most great men have been known to be influenced by their first models, who are generally their parents. According to Darlington (2021), the Home is the child's first social institution, where he or she is initially taught life values. A home prepares a youngster for life outside the home. Society expects parents to educate their children about their surroundings. A home is a location where students reside with their parents or guardians and where they are nurtured. It is a location where the youngster learns the rules and values of the society in which they live. In any civilization, the family is a social unit that provides early stimulation and experience to children (Collins, 2017). The household impacts the students at the most vulnerable point in his life, when his mind is most open. It makes the initial impression, which may last for the rest of the child's life. The youngster frequently considers his parents, siblings, and items in their immediate surroundings to be the most important, and they are capable of increasing or lowering his self-worth and academic success (Ekanem, 2022).

The immediate settings in which the students find themselves are referred to as the environment. It is often referred to as children's physical and psychological conditions. Parents or guardians are responsible for providing a conducive home environment for their children's effective learning, and some factors that influence their academic performance include: parental educational background, background, parental economic status, parental marital status, and parental home location (Collins, 2017). The child's initial point of contact in preparing for future problems is the home. The home is frequently seen from numerous perspectives, such as family type, parenting style, home functioning, and so on. The house can also be seen as a significant role in a student's academic achievement, particularly when such pupils do not come from underprivileged homes. These forms of families, according to Vincent (2021), include single parents, divorced, merged families, two-parent families, and so on. Parenting style refers to whether parents are authoritarian, laissez-faire, or democratic. Homework, television consumption, extracurricular activities, and other sorts of structured after-school organizations and occupations all contribute to a child's academic progress.

Many studies have looked at parental engagement and its impact on kids' learning and conduct, but few have looked at what motivates parents to get engaged. According to Ogbemudia and Aiasa (2013), the parents or guardians of these students are accountable for establishing a conducive home environment for their children's successful learning. Furthermore, the following elements impact a student's academic success in their home environment: parental educational background, background, parental economic situation (at least an average financial level), parental marital status, and parental home location. In evaluating the parental marital status on students' academic performance, much emphasis will be placed on sound human relations, as a home environment that is tense due to divorce or an unhealthy atmosphere of quarreling, fighting due to polygamy cannot foster learning, as the pupils' minds will not be settled in order to allow for creativity. According to Ekanem (2022), a happy household creates emotional stability in the kid at home and, as a result, throughout his school life. Furthermore, children who participate in additional physical activities have improved attributes such as increased brain function, nourishment, higher energy/concentration levels, changes in body building affects self esteem, increases self esteem, and better behavior, all of which may support cognitive learning.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Since the introduction of modern education, the issue of student performance in schools has been a source of worry. Many nations have realized that students are at the center of the educational process and that without strong performance, all educational advances would fail. According to Uyanga (2022), there is widespread unhappiness with the current state of education in many nations, and parents are to blame. This is because the majority of parents include their children in gardening and other household chores. Learning ability, color, gender, and sex can all have an impact on a student's success. Kids' achievement, economic situations, and danger of dropping out are all tied to familial environmental elements that students may unintentionally imitate.  According to studies, children from dysfunctional households have trouble building healthy connections within their peer group, generally owing to shyness or a personality condition, which can influence their academic performance and involvement in class, schoolwork, and exams. According to Kaslow (2020), pupils are engaged when they commit significant time and effort to chores and when their home is made pleasant. Therefore, upon this premise that this study seeks to examine the  influence of home factor on students participation in their academic achievement.

1.3   OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to examine the  influence of home factor on students participation in their academic achievement. These specific objectives are to.

i.          To determine if  parents’ income status influences the student’s academic achievement.

ii.        To examine whether parents educational background influences  the student’s academic performance.

iii.      To investigate whether parental marital style influences on the student’s academic performance.

iv.      To ascertain whether home location influences  student’s academic performance.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTION

The research is guided by the following question:

i.          Does parents’ income status influences the student’s academic achievement?

ii.        Does parents educational background influences  the student’s academic performance?

iii.      Does parental marital style influences on the student’s academic performance?

iv.      Does home location influences  student’s academic performance?

1.5  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study will enlighten parents on the need to adopt the proper and best parenting style, reward good academic performance and make the home comfortable for the child since it is the first learning point of the child. Teachers should be able to equip themselves with various teaching skills and methods including making use of teaching aids to make learning more effective, clearer and interesting for the students. The teachers also should be able to help transfer some school actions to the home these school actions include home work, punishment and so on.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study borders on the influence of home factor on students participation in their academic achievement. The study is delimited to selected secondary schools in Onna Local Government in Akwaibom State.

1.7   LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

It is possible that the report of this study may suffer some weakness in sampling. Also there may be other factors like culture, orientation and values in some areas that may affect the generalization of conclusion drawn from this study to the whole country. The application of the questionnaire was aimed at obtaining some ideas about the current situation that can represent the generality of the students in Nigeria. It is a well-known fact that academic performance and level of adjustment   among  students in secondary schools in Onna Local Government in Akwaibom State may vary along so many factors like socio-economic educational and family constellation of students among others. Due to time and financial constraints this research used only three schools in the local government area of study, therefore the results, conclusions, Suggestions and recommendations that emanated from this study will be based on the data that was generated from the sample used for this study not for generalization.