Influence of socio-economic factors of parents’ educational background and marital status on academic performance of students

This study was designed to investigate the influence of socio-economic factors of parents’ educational background and marital status on the academic performance of students in Abakaliki Education zone, Ebonyi State. Two research questions were formulated to guide the study and two hypotheses were tested in the study. A structured questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection for the analysis for results of the study. The instrument was face validated and the reliability coefficient determined using the Cronbach Alpha Approach, which gave a coefficient index of 0.86. This figure is of high internal consistency indicating that the instrument was suitable for use for the study. A total of 150 senior secondary II students were used for the study. The data collected were subjected to analysis using mean and standard deviation for the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses. The results of the study showed that parents’ educational background and marital status have influences on students’ academic performance. Hypothesis 1 was not significant while hypothesis 2 was significant. The researchers recommended among other things that the parents should improve on their educational background to guide their children at home. Again, the home environment should be made peaceful environment and united while the school should have qualified teachers. Both the home and the school should work closely to enhance students’ academic performance at school. Based on the findings of the study educational implications, recommendations were made which if implemented would boost the academic performance of students tremendously.