Investigating the Impact of Parental Factors on Students’ Academic Performance in Mathematics: A Comparative Analysis of Motivation, Provision of Instructional Materials.

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the impact of parental factors on students’ academic performance in mathematics: a comparative analysis of motivation, provision of instructional materials in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. To guide the study, three hypotheses were formulated and were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The descriptive survey was used as the design for the study and the population consisted of 2, 516 SSII students in the six selected schools out of the 14 public senior secondary schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. The sample of the study consisted of 250 SSII students which represented about 10% of the population. The instrument used for the study was a constructed questionnaire titled “Parental Mentoring Strategies and Students Academic Performance in Mathematics” (PMSAPMQ). The instrument was of four sections. Section A comprised 10 items on parental mentoring strategies; Section B consisted of another 10 items requesting responses on parental motivation; section C comprised 10 items on parents’ provision of instructional resources and finally Section D requests for students’ academic score in Mathematics in their last term. Three experts, one in the field of Measurement and Evaluation, one in Educational Planning and Administration while the other expert in Counselling Psychology validated the instrument. The test-re-test reliability method was used and the data collected was analysed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The instrument yielded correlations coefficients of 0.89 for parental mentoring strategies; 0.77 for parental motivation and 0.85 for parental provisions of instructional materials. The instrument was administered to the selected sample and data collected was analysed and results showed that there was a significant influence of parental motivation, parents’ provision of instructional materials and parental mentoring strategies on students’ academic performance in Mathematics in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. Based on the findings of the study, it was therefore recommended that parents and teachers should make use of motivation, provision of instructional materials mentoring strategies to enhance students’ academic performance in mathematics in secondary schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State.