EFFECT OF BIRTH ORDER ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE ADOLESCENTS, IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
ABSTRACT
This study looked into “The Effect of Birth Order on Adolescent Academic Performance in Secondary Schools.”
The study’s sample consisted of five secondary schools in Lagos State’s Ajeromi Local Government Area. A second sample of 200 students was drawn at random from each of the five secondary schools.
Four research hypotheses were tested, focusing on the relationship between birth order and adolescent student academic performance, family size and adolescent student academic performance, socioeconomic status of a student’s family and his academic performance, and a significant difference in academic performance of the first, middle, and last born.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 THE STUDY’S BACKGROUND
Because birth order is important in child rearing, the family comes first in the child’s life in a variety of ways. According to Cooley, “the family is the cradle of personality.” It is crucial in the processing or induction of the child into society and culture.
The new individual’s basic drives and needs can only be realized with the environment provided by the people who surround him. His interpersonal relationships will be shaped not by any single cultural determinant, but by the various individual differences represented by family members.
As a result, it is important to note that intellectual development in school subjects must be closely examined, with the family unit as the key ingredient in the formation of eventual IQ growth, as well as environmental variables of a student’s family.
The personality or socialization pattern of a child may be influenced by his sibling position or birth order. The impact of ordinal birth position on the child and sibling relationship has been extensively researched across the country; certain generalizations can now be made if we remember that all of their birth positions are incidental to the social and emotional climate of the home.
And this is largely determined by the types of homes, such as the nuclear family, which can be viewed as a democratic home with the least amount of frustration, and the extended family, which also has its share of frustration. Again, the socioeconomic status of these families is important in determining its relationship to the individual student’s personality development in general and their academic performance in particular.
In this study, these generalizations will be grouped into the oldest child (as the first born child) whose position in the family structure is unique, despite the fact that different studies and writers attribute different effects to the position.
The youngest or last child in the family, whose position is also crucial depending on the family’s economic situation and associated cultural advantages for him.
The study of these age differences will go a long way toward assisting teachers, parents, and society at large in conducting effective investigations of the effects of birth order on adolescent students’ academic performance.
Birth order, as an integral part of a child’s formative and development stages, will be heavily emphasized because it affects students’ learning ability and assimilation rate in school.
Along with this, the home and parental status, as well as environmental factors militating against students’ achievement in school in general, will be studied as an area of study, as they are an important and strong determinant of measuring students’ performance in school.
In this case, the birth order or order of delivery of children will be viewed or analyzed from the perspective of the first born child, the middle born child, and the last born child, as previously indicated.
Huni (1966) agrees that the child’s environment has a significant impact on the acquisition of fundamental knowledge and skills.
According to Kernes (1997), in order for a child to grow intellectually and socially with increased independence, to meet daily-life situations, the child must be provided with a conducive environment that allows him to develop adequate motor skills and be motivated to learn.
Because it plays such an important role in socializing the child, the home is the foundation of education. At home, the child spends his early years and learns his language.
Data (1984) emphasized the importance of the family, stating that “the home environment remains a primary setting in which the child’s initial experiences have an enduring impact on the child’s physical, intellectual, and personality development.” According to Datta, the child’s early social and physical environment in the home influences his later social and cognitive development.
Obanya (1981) went on to say that the learner’s environment influences both his attitude toward school and his performance in school.
According to Uche (1984), there is enough evidence from previous research findings that a child’s school performance is related to his background, and the activities that take place in a child’s home are related to his parents’ social status.
He also believes that many lower-income parents fail to provide their children with even the most basic level of reinforcement and stimulation for their children’s intellectual development.
1.2 THE PROBLEM’S STATEMENT
The problem’s specific statement is to investigate the extent to which the children’s birth order or positions in the family affect their academic performance, as well as the family’s socioeconomic status.
The position of the children, that is, the first, middle, and last born child in the family, will be closely examined in order to determine their academic performance in school.
The study is investigating the effects of birth order on adolescent students academic performance in order to determine the reasons for the students’ different levels of performance in relation to their individual positions in the family.
According to Miner (1969), a child’s socioeconomic status is related to the level of achievement attained.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The study’s goal is to emphasize the importance of birth order on adolescent students’ academic performance. As a result, parents, teachers, and society will be able to recognize the various differences in students throughout their academic careers.
Thus, it is anticipated that the glaring effects of ‘Birth Order’ will be enumerated sufficiently in this study for parents and society at large to make redress where necessary, and to maintain an appreciated standard of breeding children in order to achieve the desired result of intelligent, well-motivated children as products of good and sound education.
1.4 THE STUDY’S SIGNIFICANCE
The study’s significance stems from the fact that it will raise awareness about the importance of birth order in educational achievement.
Obviously, it would provide insight into the reasons why some students outperform others in social studies. In the long run, the findings of this study will assist educationists, parents, and teachers, as well as society at large, in realizing that students’ academic performance is not solely based on intelligence, nor is it solely based on the socioeconomic background of the students, nor on family size.
As a result, educational planners, administrators, educational policymakers, and other societal issue planners may find this study useful. This will make them aware that, in addition to the child’s intelligence, quotient (IQ), attitude, and the parents’ education and the standard of the school the child attends, other factors such as the family’s socioeconomic status and birth order have an impact on the academic performance of students in the school.
This study will also be beneficial to parents in terms of child rearing. Parents tend to discipline and pay more attention to their firstborn child than to their other children.
Bringing out the true picture of the family’s contribution to the child’s academic performance, causing the parents to bear a portion of the blame that would normally be placed solely on the child for his or her poor performance in school.
The study will be invaluable to school principals because it will help them better understand the child and why he or she performs in a certain way.
1.5 QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH
The fundamental questions addressed in this study are as follows:
1. Is there a link between a student’s birth order and their educational development?
2. Is there a link between the size of a family and a student’s academic performance?
3. Is there a significant relationship between socioeconomic status and academic performance in adolescent students?
4. Is there a significant difference in academic performance between adolescent students of the first, middle, and last child?
1.6 THE STUDY’S HYPOTHESIS
1. There is no significant relationship between adolescent students’ academic performance and birth order (first, middle, and last born child).
2. There is no correlation between family size and adolescent academic performance.
3. There is no significant relationship between a child’s socioeconomic status and his academic performance.
4. There is no statistically significant difference in academic performance between the first, middle, and last born children.
1.7 THE STUDY’S OBJECTIVE
The study investigates the impact of birth order on student performance and educational development in the Ajeromi Local Government Area of Lagos State.
1.8 THE STUDY’S LIMITATIONS
During the course of the study, the research encountered some limitations. The researcher faced financial constraints, which limited the number of contacts made at the various destinations as well as the number of questionnaires provided and administered.
Due to the formal protocols required by the Principals, there was also general reluctance to provide information, as well as other factors such as accessibility to the source of information. Inadequate availability of secondary data is also a constraint to the study.
The study is also limited to Lagos State’s Mainland Local Government Area. As a result, there is a limit to how far the students’ results can be generalized.
1.9 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
A nuclear family consists of a man, his wife, and their children. This is a smaller family unit that lives on its own, in contact with relatives but not dependent on them.
The extended family can be a nuclear family or a polygamous family, and it includes aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, sons’ wives and their children as all members of the family.
A polygamous family is one in which a man is legally married to more than one wife. A polygamous family consists of a man, his wives, and their children.
Socioeconomic Status: This refers to an individual’s social and economic situation. It is regarded as the most significant predicting factor responsible for students’ academic achievement based on family background.
The child’s immediate physical surroundings in the physical environment are referred to as the environment. Temperature, humidity, and pressure are all factors that influence the individual and, as a result, his learning.
Academic performance can be defined as a student’s result or outcome during the course of study. It can also be described as a phenomenon that is used to assess the success of students in particular.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) can be defined as judgment, common sense, the ability to comprehend and reason well, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
Home Environment: This term refers to the atmospheric nature of a family’s living environment.
The total number of children and parents in an immediate or extended family is referred to as family size.
Birth Order: This is the order of child delivery, or the position in which a child is born, such as first, second, or third.
Educational Development refers to how far a child can progress academically and how well he performs in all aspects or areas of his academics.
A set of questionnaires was the primary data collection tool in the study.
The data was analyzed using the Person’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Chi-Square analysis.
Based on the study’s findings, conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were made.
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EFFECT OF BIRTH ORDER ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE ADOLESCENTS, IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
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