THE PREDICTIVE ROLE OF PARENTING STYLE AND PERSONALITY TRAITS ON THE INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OWERRI MUNICIPALITY

THE PREDICTIVE ROLE OF PARENTING STYLE AND PERSONALITY TRAITS ON THE INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OWERRI MUNICIPALITY

ABSTRACT

This research project explores the predictive role of parenting style and personality traits on the intellectual functioning of secondary school students in Owerri Municipality in public secondary schools in Owerri Municipality, Imo State, Nigeria. The study recognises the critical role of parenting in shaping children's educational outcomes and seeks to identify the factors that contribute to positive academic performance. This seminar highlighted the significance of socialisation theory, which emphasises the influence of parents as primary agents of socialisation on children's beliefs, values, and attitudes towards education. Additionally, ecological systems theory provided a broader perspective by considering the influence of various systems, such as the family, school, community, and culture, on parenting belief systems and academic outcomes. The research adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population includes registered male and female students in all public secondary schools in Owerri municipality during the 2022–2023 session. Employing a simple random sampling technique, two public secondary schools were selected, namely Emmanuel College, Owerri Municipal, and Owerri Girls Secondary School, Owerri Urban, Imo State, with a total of 240 students sampled. Data was collected through a self-developed questionnaire focusing on parental involvement, communication between parents and children, and parental expectations. The instrument's reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.Results from the research questions reveal positive perceptions from both genders regarding parental involvement, effective communication, and parental expectation setting. Students affirm that their parents actively engage in school activities, attend meetings regularly, provide academic support, and encourage participation in extracurricular activities. Furthermore, students report open and honest communication with their parents about academic experiences, with parents attentively listening to their concerns, providing guidance, and discussing academic goals. The majority of students also acknowledge that their parents have high expectations, set specific goals, and motivate them to strive for academic excellence. Mean scores ranged from 2.79 to 3.60 for males and 2.80 to 3.60 for females, indicating a positive perception of the impact of parenting belief systems on academic performance. The study also tested three hypotheses. The first hypothesis, exploring gender differences in the impact of parental involvement, revealed no significant disparity in the opinions of male and female students. The second hypothesis, examining gender differences in the influence of parent-child communication, also found no significant distinction in perceptions between male and female students. Similarly, the third hypothesis, investigating gender differences in the role of parental expectation setting, demonstrated no significant variation in opinions between male and female students. The findings suggest that gender does not play a significant role in shaping students' perceptions of the impact of parenting practices on academic performance in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Education is the process of developing or training an individual to cope with the challenges of living and places people can acquire learning. According to Ambrose and Bridges (2010), learning is a process that increases the potential for improved performance, which leads to experience and future learning. Educational standards have been falling in many countries, and Nigeria is no exception.  Education, learning, and social excellence rest on the socialisation and style of the inhabitants of such a country. The family is generally considered an important system that has a heavy impact on the development of children and adolescents. According to Mboya (2009), child-rearing behaviours are variables or factors that contribute to self-concept development in children and adolescents. Parents who are accepting and controlling (authoritative), the children will measure or perform highly in school-related variables and mental wellbeing; the variables include the effective use of learning and studying strategies. If there is a greater communication gap between parents and child, maybe either a highly authoritarian or highly permissive disciplinary style, the child will have faulty learning styles and will lack the opportunity to acquire effective studying strategies.

Some Parents have enduring personality and some characteristics, such as intelligence, traits, attitude and motivation to become involved with children care. According to Spera (2005), the way parents make up their children and the ways they react to their children”s compliment can be the factor that influence children”s will to achieve their Objective or goal. Chao (2012) showed that parent, through their styles of parenting, build critical foundation for every area of a child"s development and achievement. There are some factors that contribute to the students.”

performance, either low or high, such as large class size, inadequate facilities, inadequate lecturers, facilities, funds and library materials, and all these are applicable. Students are from different homes, and home activities go a long way in determining learner success. Bakare (1994) outlined four factors that could affect individual learning: the child”s attitude, family, school and society. He shows the importance of parents involvement in the improvement of students” learning strategies. Baumrind (2012), in his study, identified that pre-school children raised by parents with differing parenting styles varied in their degree of social competence. Parental style refers to parent”s mode of training and investment of resources in their students schooling. Parental beliefs and perceptions have also been shown to be strong predictors of parental involvement.

The style of parenting adopted in different homes affects the children’s dispositions (genes), which can contribute to their learning. Baumrind (1973) attempted to link family interaction to children’s cognitive competence (reason ability) and how high or low parents are in their demanding and responsiveness, and she urges some parents to use all the styles but tend to dwell on one approach. These styles of parenting are authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive (Ibukunolu, 2013). And each of these styles is characterised by a specific stand that parents adopt in bringing and nursing their children. Families differ in the visual, behavioural, learning, and standard of living of their children. The level of child”s learning patterns (strategies) depends

Depending on the type of upbringing they are exposed to, parent help child develop reading habits and learning skills in their daily activities. What the child is exposed to is what the child adapts to. Children who are raised in authoritarian parenting style are likely to be better behaved than those from permissive and uninvolved homes. Some children are prone to being overly dependent due to what they have observed or learned from their parents: low self-esteem, poor social relation and maybe tensed with difficult tasks. Lack of confidence and other factors can reduce individual learning ability, which may reflect in school performance. Autocratic parent believe that they know what is best for the children and make decisions for them. Some parent choose career for their children without considering the children's ability, choices, and passions. This can lead to the child failing or not being fulfilled. Children raised in autocratic families are more likely to suffer from emotional problems, which puts them at greater risk of anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, and psychological adjustment.

In an authoritative style, parents are involved with their children and pass good learning on to the child, which may result in improved child performance. They also help them with schoolwork and monitor their attitude and reading habits. Any difficulties faced by children are discussed with parents as a way out. Children also have the freedom to choose their profession. Authoritative parenting is linked to greater social and emotional competence. These children also tend to have good self-esteem and to be successful in school. Children raised by authoritative parents score higher on measures of competence, achievement, social development, self-perceptions, and mental health than children reared by the other three parenting styles. As a result of the parents not being involved in the well-being of the child, the learning ability of such a child will be affected. It involves not just bringing up the children but also providing care for them, and parents are responsible for taking good care of their children, either physically or psychologically. Results from different studies show that children who have a positive relationship with their parents tend to do better or perform better in school than those who have a low relationship. Good parent cause their children to form good relationships, hold good values, treat people well, and strive to excel in academics and other areas of life, while bad parents (uncaring parents) cause a negative impact on their children's lives, which can destroy their liveshttps://docs.projectchampionz.com.ng/all-downloads/https://docs.projectchampionz.com.ng/all-downloads/ and cause them to exhibit deviant behaviours in society. According to Changalwa, Michael, Ndurumo, and Moses Poipoi (2012), there is a significant relationship between authoritative parenting style and learning performance. In general, children are enhanced by authoritative parents and show higher academic competence, social development, self-perception, and mental health compared to children with authoritarian and permissive parents (Baumrind, 2012).

Personality is individual attitude that occurs several times, and this shows who we are. Personality can only be measured; a set of items usually contains questions about our behaviour and feelings as individuals. Personality can refer to individual differences in the way we feel, think, and behave. Personality is the unique combination of characteristics and qualities that make us unique in different situations. Therehttps://docs.projectchampionz.com.ng/all-downloads/ are some components of personality which characterise individual traits such as habits, attitudes, interests, values, principles and mental capacity or intelligence. individual’s learning orientation and approach to learning arehttps://docs.projectchampionz.com.ng/all-downloads/ partially determined by their personality Children and parents are different in their personal values, and how they receive and process information are different from each other’s. It is often argued that a blend of personality characteristics is necessary for people to be successful in their career. Personality has been recognised as a determining factor in how people learn and impact such experiences on others.  Personality traits have been found to be significantly related to a successful job and learning, both logically and statistically. According to the Big-5 model (a five-factor model of personality) developed by Cattell, a psychologist,. The scale was objectively developed to test individual behaviour across different situations. This model helps us understand what types of personalities affect students’ learning methods.  The five-factor model (FFM) includes the most frequently appearing personality dimensions on which people vary (Poropat and Corr, 2015). Agreeableness is the reflecting quality of being friendly, modest, and accommodating; conscientiousness refers to someone who is dutiful, diligent, and orderly in everything; emotional stability is when someone is calm, relaxed, balanced, and patient.  Neuroticism is someone who has a psychological problem with being moody, ruminating, or irritable; extraversion has been tagged as someone who is outgoing, sociable, and active in society; and openness is curiosity about and tolerance for diverse cultural and intellectual experiences. Recent research has shown associations between personality and academic performance (Poropat, 2009; Richardson, Abraham, and Bond, 2012).

According to Costa and McCrae (1992), people who score high on the extraversion scale are forceful and are likely to become group leaders because they are assertive. People who score high on agreeableness tend to care about the well-being of others and are generous in helping others. Individuals who score high on the conscientiousness scale tend to be well organised, hardworking, curious, self-motivated, and tidy. Those who score high on the neuroticism scale are apprehensive, feel unhappy, and are inclined to worry. People who score high on the openness scale are intellectually curious and open to new ideas. Findings have shown that conscientiousness is linked to educational achievement and, particularly, to the struggle to achieve academic success. Attitude has been linked to learning and is a powerful tool that can affect an individual's life. According to Abidin, Ibrahim, and Akiah (1994), attitude is a crucial part in determining a person”s personality and ways of understanding people’s behaviour in a given situation, and attitude serves as a defiance mechanism for individuals. Attitudes affect one's social life or interactions with others, either by parent, peer, or family, because their factors determine an individual's attitude towards learning, whether positive or negative.

According to Jasmina Hasnbegovi (2006), learning refers to the students self-generated thoughts, feelings, and actions that are systematically oriented towards attainment of their goal. Learning style can be understood as organised, conscious and intentional of what the student does to efficiently accomplish a learning objective in a given social context and this include affective motivational and support elements (which involve the willingness and a suitable climate to learn), metacognitive elements (“making decisions and assessing them”, which involves students” self-regulation) and cognitive elements (“being able”, which involves dealing with the strategies, skills and techniques related with information processing) the word “strategic” are used differently and this strategies is to acquire learning with conscience, intentionality and flexibility towards self-control. Learning pattern are in three form which form  human mind in relation to learning which include willingness, capacity and autonomy (wanting, being able and deciding) (Beltrán, 2001; Beltrán, Pérez and Ortega, 2006). All students have what is called “self-regulation,” which means that learners personally activate cognitions, affects and behaviours that are systematically oriented towards learning goals (Schunk and Zimmerman, 2008). Such learners are always aware of the task demands and their ability to meet them and they have high efficacy for learning. According to Bandura, learning is based on three interactions: self- or personal influences such as attitudes and beliefs; and behavioural and environmental factors (Bruning et al., 2011; Schunk and Zimmerman, 2007).

Parental role in learning was related to adaptive learning (i.e. self-regulated engagement in learning activities, low anxiety, high perceived competence, and high achievement) through its positive aspect. Individual students improve themselves based on the learning they acquire from the environment, and parents play a role in shaping or modelling children’s development, including learning and school outcomes. According to the work of Grolnick and Ryan (2010), parental support or control is very important in predicting children’s self-regulation, teacher-rated competence, and adjustment, as well as school grades.

Parental roles in children was conceptualised as the extent to which parents are knowledgeable about and take positive aspect of the child’s life. Parental support or mutual control was defined as the extent to which parents” value and encourage children’s independence.

problem solving, choice, and participation in decisions rather than for their children to conform to their expectations through punitive disciplinary practices. Empirical studies have shown that parental roles and their psychological support are related to students” learning and well-being. Those students who have poor learning abilities in school could be attributable to a variety of factors, which may include an inability to manage their time, peer influence, and family factors like parents. Study show us that parent have greater influence on their children learning.

 

 

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The state of education in Nigeria has contributed to the problem of student learning patterns. The efforts of governments to solve these problems are falling, and a lack of involvement and recognition of the roles played by parents and families also contributes to the falling standards in education. Child foundation begins at home, which serves as the first point of contact for the child, and family is the socialising agent of children that impacts knowledge, either good or bad. It is through family that personality traits, social competence, psychological, emotional, physical, and educational development of children develop as a result of the parenting styles that parents adopt and use in bringing children up.

Types of parenting styles used by parents depend on what style they use to bring the child up; this creates a growth-inhibiting relationship and environment that may affect children in all areas of their lives, especially academic competence and success. This means that it will lead to instability and confusion in the children (Frazier, 2013), which consequently affect their developmental outcomes and learning ability. Poor cognitive systems would be developed as well as learning competence, which would lead to poor learning among students. Recent developments in the field of parenting and family studies have led to an interest in the relationship between children’s school learning and parenting style. Susanadari (2014) found that authoritative parenting styles have a positive influence on self-efficacy. Parents in Western cultures endorse autonomous socialisation goals that focus on helping their children become independent, competitive, and self-expressive (Keller and Otto, 2009; Barnhart et. al., 2013). These developments have highlighted the need for studies on children’s school learning since the family is the first window into the child's life. Parenting style can greatly affect a child's understanding, attitude, and school performance. There are several research studies done on the parent-child relationship and the children’s learning performance (Ladd and Pettit, 2012). However, few scholars have focused on the influence of parenting style and learning strategies on undergraduates. Also, research was conducted on the influence of parenting style on school performance.

Many researchers have conducted a number of studies on the relationship between the Big Five traits and learning performance in territory institutions (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2006; Wagerman and Funder, 2007), all of which found that conscientiousness was the strongest predictor of student learning ability. Learning style is considered to be a process through which students gain knowledge and understanding through explicitly visual tools (Lewis, 2012). According to the findings, intelligence can reliably predict academic performance (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2007). Five factors lead to the recognition of reliable and important estimates of the role of personality in education.  The biologically based Eysenckian personality model (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1975) has been an influential alternative to the five factors (FFM) in educational research as well as in psychology in general. Two of the personality factors in the Eysenckian personality model, extraversion and neuroticism, are very similar to extraversion and emotional stability (reversed) in the five factors model (FFM) and show similar associations with learning ability. Furthermore, the psychoticism factor in the Eysenckian model partly overlaps with conscientiousness (reversed), but unlike conscientiousness, psychoticism shows only imited predictive validity for learning patterns (Poropat, 2011).  Duchesne and Ratelle (2010) reported that parental involvement in daily life predicted the mastery goals of students, whereas parental control predicted performance goals, and the latter was mediated by symptoms of anxiety.

Children’s self-concepts at home or at school are influenced by parents’ views, whether positive or negative, and can be an important factor for learning (Sarason, Pierce, Bannerman, and Sarason, 1993). Parent, lecturer, peers, and social factors have been a set of factors that tend to point to the accusing influence of negative peer pressure, family pressure, and poor time management as being responsible for poor learning among the students. These factors lure students to engage in negative habits such as excessive drinking of alcohol, smoking, unhealthy sexual behaviour, and other maladjusted behaviours that may distract them from their academic pursuits and the learning they have acquired from their parents, friends, and peers. Lastly, conscientiousness and an authoritative style of parenting have a strong positive influence on student learning ability. The intellectual functioning of secondary school students is influenced by various factors, including parental upbringing and individual personality traits. However, there is a gap in understanding how specific parenting styles and personality traits interact and predict the intellectual performance of students in Owerri municipality. Addressing this gap is essential for designing effective interventions to enhance the academic outcomes and overall development of adolescents in the region.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research is to examine the predictive role of parenting style and personality traits on the intellectual functioning of secondary school students in Owerri municipality.

The specific objectives include:

1. To explore the impact of parental involvement on the academic performance of pupils in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.
2. To examine the influence of parent-child communication on the academic performance of pupils in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.
3. To investigate the role of parental expectation setting in shaping the academic performance of pupils in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.

1.4 Significance of the Study

 

This study holds significance at various levels:

1. Academic Contribution: It contributes to the existing body of knowledge by shedding light on the predictive role of parenting style and personality traits on the intellectual functioning of secondary school students, particularly in the Nigerian context.
2. Practical Implications: Findings from this study can inform parents, educators, and policymakers about effective strategies to support the intellectual development of adolescents.
3. Intervention Design: The study's recommendations can guide the development of interventions aimed at enhancing parenting practices and promoting positive personality traits among adolescents.
4. Policy Formulation: Policymakers can utilise the insights gained from this study to formulate policies that support holistic development and academic success among secondary school students in Owerri municipality.

1.5 Scope of the Study

This research focuses on secondary school students in Owerri municipality, Nigeria. It encompasses an examination of parenting styles, assessment of personality traits, and analysis of their predictive role on the intellectual functioning of students. The study does not delve into other factors that may influence intellectual functioning, such as socioeconomic status or educational resources.

This research will focus on exploring the relationship between parenting belief system and the academic performance of pupils in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality. The study will involve a sample of students from various public secondary schools in the area. The research will primarily rely on survey questionnaires and possibly interviews to collect data regarding parenting beliefs, academic performance, and overall adjustment of the pupils.

1.6 Research Questions

To guide this study, the following research questions will be addressed:

1. How does parental involvement affect the academic performance of pupils in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality?
2. To what degree does communication between parents and children impact the academic performance of pupils in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality?
3. What role does parental expectation setting play in influencing the academic performance of pupils in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality?

1.7 Research Hypotheses

Based on the research questions, the following research hypotheses will be tested:

1. Null Hypothesis (H0): There is no significant difference in the opinions of male and female students regarding the impact of parental involvement on academic performance in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.

Alternative Hypothesis (H1): There is a significant difference in the opinions of male and female students regarding the impact of parental involvement on academic performance in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.

2. Null Hypothesis (H0): There is no significant difference in the opinions of male and female students regarding the influence of parent-child communication on academic performance in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.

Alternative Hypothesis (H1): There is a significant difference in the opinions of male and female students regarding the influence of parent-child communication on academic performance in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.

3. Null Hypothesis (H0): There is no significant difference in the opinions of male and female students regarding the role of parental expectation setting in shaping academic performance in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.

Alternative Hypothesis (H1): There is a significant difference in the opinions of male and female students regarding the role of parental expectation setting in shaping academic performance in public secondary schools in Owerri municipality.

THE PREDICTIVE ROLE OF PARENTING STYLE AND PERSONALITY TRAITS ON THE INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OWERRI MUNICIPALITY. 

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