Openness To Experience As A Personality Trait As A Correlate Of School Adjustment Of In School Adolescents For Sustainable Development In South-South Nigeria:- R. N. Uzoka

Abstract The purpose ofthis study was to determine the extent openness to experience as a personality trait correlates with the school adjustment ofin-school adolescentsfor sustainable development in South-South, Nigeria. The study adopted a correlational research design. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. A sample of600 (271 male and 239female) SSIIstudents drawn through multistage sampling techniquesfrom the targetpopulation of3,000 (1,354 male and 1,646 female) senior secondary school class two students in the 18 unity’ secondary schools in 2024/2025 academic session in South-South, Nigeria was usedfor the study. Two instruments were used for the study. The researcher developed "Personality Traits Assessment Scale (PTAS) ” while the "Schoo!Adjustment Scale (SAS) ” was adaptedfrom School Adjustment Scale (SAC) by Ekennia (2016). These instruments were validated by three experts in Educational Psychology’, Guidance and counselling and Measurement and Evaluation. The internal consistency of the instruments were determined using Cronbach Alpha method and reliability indices of 0.84 and 0.82 were obtainedfor PTAS and SAS respectively. The data obtained through the administration of the two instruments were analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (Pearson's r R2 coefficient ofdetermination) to answer the research questions, while linear regression analyses were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level ofsignificance. Thefindings among others revealed that openness to experience as a personality traitsignificantly correlated with school adjustment among the in-school adolescents as it contributed 76% of the variance observed in the school adjustment among in-school adolescents for sustainable development. It was recommended among others that parents, teachers, counsellors andpsychologist should see each student as a unique being and a person of worth irrespective of the student’s personality traits for the proper school adjustment for sustainable development and avoidance of possible inferiority complex and that the socioculturalpractices that discriminate againstfemales need to be abolished. Key: Personality traits School adjustment, In-school adolescents, Sustainable Development