ABSTRACT

This study investigated the extent parental achievement orientation could serve as correlate of students’ academic achievement and psychological well - being in public secondary schools in Ebonyi State. The study was guided by ten research questions and ten null hypotheses formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a correlational research design. The sample for the study consisted of 627 respondents drawn through multistage sampling techniques from the entire population of 12,535 senior secondary class two students in 2022/2023 academic session in 224 public secondary schools in Ebonyi State. Three instruments titled “Parental Achievement Orientation Questionnaire (PAOQ), Students’ Psychological Well-Being Questionnaire (SPWBQ) and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT)” were developed by the researcher and were used for data collection. These instruments were subjected to face and construct validation by three experts. The Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) was validated by three specialists; one from Measurement and Evaluation and two specialists from Mathematics Education. The MAT was validated using the Content Validity which was derived using the Table of Specification or Test Blue Print. The internal consistency of the PAOQ and SPWBQ were determined using Cronbach’s Alpha method after single administration; which yielded reliability estimates of 0.78 and 0.74 for PAOQ and SPWBQ respectively. The reliability of the MAT was determined using Kuder-Richardson (KR-21) formular and reliability coefficient calculated was 0.88. The data generated for this study were analyzed using Pearson’s r, R² (coefficient of determination) to answer the research questions while linear regressions and multiple regression analysis were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. Results revealed as follows: Parental achievement orientation (parental involvement, parental expectations, parental educational level and parental occupational status) combined determined students’ academic achievement to a very highly positive and significant extent. Parental involvement had the highest percentage contribution of 69.6%; followed by parental educational level with 65.9%, parental expectations with 52.7%, and lastly parental occupational status which predicted 45.6% of students’ academic achievement; Parental achievement orientation (parental involvement, parental expectations, parental educational level and parental occupational status) combined determined students’ psychological well-being to a very highly positive and significant extent. Parental involvement had the highest percentage contribution of 75.2%; followed by parental educational level with 69.3%, parental expectations with 58.2%, and lastly parental occupational status which predicted 60.1% of students’ psychological well-being. It was thus recommended that parents, guardians, teachers, psychologists and counsellors should educate students on the importance of parental achievement orientation in their academic achievement and psychological well-being.