ABSTRACT

This study investigated psychosocial factors as correlates of secondary school students’ interest and achievement in Economics in Abia State. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent psychosocial factors correlate with senior secondary students’ interest and achievement in Economics in public secondary schools in Abia State. Eight research questions and eight hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted correlational survey research design. The population of the study include 7860 senior secondary school two (SS2) students that offered Economics in 2020/2021 in all the co-educational public schools in Aba Education Zone in Abia State. The study adopted a sample size of 786 SS2 students comprised of 374 male and 412 female students. The study utilized three researcher’s developed instruments for data collection which were Psychosocial Factors Questionnaire (PFQ), Students Interest Scale and (SIS) and Economics Achievement Test (EAT). The EAT was validated by three experts; one expert in Economics Education from Department of Educational Management, one in Educational Psychology from department of Educational Psychology and counselling, and one expert in measurement and evaluation from Department of Science Education, all from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. The data collected were analysed using Cronbach Alpha to determine the internal consistency of psychosocial factors questionnaire (PFQ) and Economics Interest Scale (EIS). The PFQ with four clusters yielded 0.82, 0.80, 0.77 and 0.81 for clusters 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The overall coefficient for PFQ was 0.80 on the other hand; EIS recorded a reliability coefficient of 0.80. Economics Achievement Test (EAT) was analyzed using K-R₂₀ statistic which yielded reliability coefficient of 0.86. Data collected was analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) to answer the research questions while linear regression was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed among others that stress, students home background, social class and self-efficacy significantly to a positive high extent relate to senior secondary students’ interest and achievement in Economics. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the state and Federal Ministry of Education as policy makers in secondary schools should infuse learning skills that carter for all. Also, teachers and parents should see stress as a core contributor to interest and achievement in teaching and learning exercise and as such could lead to academic assessment.