Relationship between Child-Rearing Styles and Secondary School Students’ Attitude towards Examination Malpractice in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Examination malpractice is a perennial problem in the nation’s educational system, as such; it is of great interest to educators, researchers and the general public. The type of child-rearing styles employed by parents in raising their children have been severally said to be a factor in almost every aspect of their children’s life. This study therefore investigated the relationship between child-rearing styles and Secondary School Students’ attitude towards examination malpractice in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. The study was a descriptive research design of the survey type. Three research questions were raised and one corresponding hypothesis tested in the study. The population comprised all senior secondary school students in Ogbomoso South. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a sample of four hundred (400) respondents. Two research instruments were adopted for data collections which are Parenting Style Questionnaire (PSQ) by Olowa (2015) on child-rearing styles, and attitude towards examination malpractice questionnaire by Nuhu (2009). The research questions were answered using frequency counts and percentage while Chi-square was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed significant relationship between child-rearing styles and secondary school students’ attitude towards examination malpractice in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area of Oyo State, among others. In view of the findings of this study, it was recommended that parents should be mindful of their child-rearing styles as this, among other factors, influence students’ attitude towards examination malpractice.