INFLUENCE OF FAMILY STRUCTURE ON CHILDREN’S MOTIVATION TO LEARN AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN MINNA METROPOLIS NIGER STATE.

ABSTRACT

The study sought to investigate the influence of family structure on children’s motivation to learn and academic achievement in Minna Metropolis, Niger State. To guide the study, four research  questions were posed and answered  while four  hypotheses  were formulated  and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted  ex-post facto or causal comparative research design. The population of the study comprised of all the primary five children in Minna metropolis, Niger State totaling 9,995. A total sample of 425 primary five children in public schools in Bosso and Chanchaga Local Government Education Authorities were used for the study. The academic achievement scores of children for a session were collected using children’s  result for three terms. The instrument named influence of Family Structure on Children’s  Motivation  to  Learn  Questionnaire  was  used  for data  collection.  Mean  and Standard  Deviation  were  used  in  answering  the  research  questions,  while  analysis  of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that; children from monogamous family structure had the highest mean motivation to learn followed  by  the  children  from  multiple  transition  family  structure  while  children  from polygamous family had the lowest mean motivation to  learn. Further analysis showed that family structure significantly influences children’s motivation to learn. Children from single parenthood   family  structure  had  lower   mean   achievement   score  than  children   from monogamous and multiple transition family structure while children from polygamous family structure  had the lowest  mean  achievement  score.  However,  it was further revealed  that family  structure  has  no  significant  influence  on  the  children’s  motivation  to  learn  and children’s  academic   achievement.   Gender  has  no  significant   influence  on  children’s motivation to learn and academic achievement. Based on the findings, it was recommended among  others  that  parents  should  be  fully  involved  in  the  education  of  their  wards  by assisting them in their home works and getting other relevant materials for study ready for them.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Children’s lives are influenced by the number of parents and siblings that they live with, as well as by whether their parents are married. Parents with children make up a family. A family is a group of people who share Affinal, Consanguinal and adoption  ties and are within two generations (Oti, 2005). Fairly is a close knit group of people who care about and respect each other (Hughes, 1999). The fairly is a social group  characterized  by common residence, economic corporaton and reproduction. It comprises adults of both sexes, at least of two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship and one or more children own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults.

Family is a group of two or more people that are related by blood, marriage, adoption, step or fostering and who usually live together in the same household. This includes newly wedded  couples  without  children,  couples  with  dependants,  single  mums  or  dad  with children, siblings living together.

Family is the focal socializing unit in the society especially Africa (Oti, 2003). The family as an institution provides for the rearing, socializing and education of the child. It is a forum for the child’s initial contact with the society. It is the basic group  for individual’s social identity. It is the most common unit of socialization. The stability of the family and its antecedents are important in the child’s education. It is also a general opinion that the quality of family interactions  has important  associations  with  children’s motivation  to learn  and academic achievement. Kellaghan (1993) asserted for example, that the family environment a the most powerful  influence  in determining  children’s  motivation  to  learn and  academic

achievement and the number of years of schooling they will receive. In this study family refer

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to a group of people, comprises of mother, father and their children, related by blood  or adoption, share responsibilities and live together or separate.

Family structure  is made  up of different  types  of families,  and  marriages.  These include nuclear and extended family, single parenting, monogamous,  polygamous multiple transition, monoandrous and polyandrous family structure.

Nuclear family structure is a group of people consisting of a pair of adults and their children (US NHI, 2007). Nuclear family is typically centre n married  couple  (US NHI,

2007). In this study nuclear family is a group of people consisting of mother, father and their children living together or apart.

Extended family structure is a family that is beyond the nuclear family, consisting of grandparents,  aunts, uncles, and cousins all living nearly or in same household  (US  NHI,

2007).  Extended  family  is  a  combination  of  bother  nuclear  family  and  other  relatives associated with the nuclear family members.

Single parenthood is a problem of national proportion shared by all social and racial groups. Down (2000) holds that single parent refers to the parent who has most of the day to day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, which would categorize him or her a dominant caregiver being the parent with which the child has residency, majority of the time.  White,  (2004),  Cherlin,  (2005)  found  out  that  children from  single  parent  family structure tend to have lower levels of psychological well being. Single parenthood involves a situation where everything needed in the child’s upbringing is given by the custodian parent who live with the children (Berokraitis, 2012). The advent of single parenthood may result in increased strain on a single parent resources like time, energy etc, the desire to succeed in single parenting leads to anxiety (Wiley, 2004). The single parents also tend to worry about unpredictable income and poor housing which has influence on the child motivation to learn and academic achievement.

Monogamous family structure is a form of relationship  in which an individual  has only one partner during their lifetime or at any one time as compared to polygamy (Barash, David and Lipton, 2001). Monogamy holds the family together as an entity.  Children from monogamous  family  structure  have  been  proven  to  have  less  risk  of  psychological  and cognitive problems (White, 2004). Children whose parents practice monogamy seems to be motivated to learn better than those who parents practice polygamy.

Monogamous family structure refers to a male and female social living arrangement e.g shared use of a territory, behavior, indicative of a social pair and or proximity between a male and female without inferring and sexual interactions or reproductive patterns (Barash et. al 2001). In this study monogamous family structure  comprises of two adults of both sex, legally married and live together as husband and wife with or without children. Opposite of polygamy.

Polygamous family structure comprises of a man and multiple simultaneous wives, polyandry is where in a woman has multiple simultaneous husband; or group marriage, where in the family unit consist of multiple husbands, a woman married to more than one husband at the same time (Hughes, 2000). In this study, polygamous family structure is referred to a man, married  to more than one wife at a time, live  together  or separately,  have children together  and  share  responsibilities  in raising  the  children.  The  family  has a very strong influence on the child’s motivation to learn and  academic achievement. The reason is that different  supportive  learning  environment  for their  respective  children  such support may include, love, time, finance in satisfying required child school need. The polygamous family structure may be more constrain in ensuring the provisions of essential children needs than the  monogamous family structure. Powell and Steelman (2003) opined that children’s attainment  depends  on inputs  of time,  attention  and  many from  their  parents,  the  more children they are in the family the more less the inputs. In sufficient provision of supportive

learning environment  could lead to low motivation to learn and academic achievement  of children. Some of the characteristics of polygamous family structure many children are less inputs  of  time,  attention  and  money  invested  on  these  children  which  may  negatively influence the children motivation to learn and academic achievement.

Multiple transition family structure can be described as a basic unit, since it embraces all forms of interactive between individuals. The family provides the child  with an identity with a social status and with economic well being. The child from multiple transition family structure  experiences  addition of step parents and half  siblings.  This may cause them  to experience stress, and more transition may lead to greater stress. The addition of step parent is said to increase stress among children and adults, as families adjust to new routines, as the biological parent focuses attention to  new partner as step children come into conflict with step parent. Amato (2005), the stress of family change is cumulative because any disruption requires  re-adoption  and  therefore,  the  number  of  family  transition  has  greater  negative influence  on  children’s  motivation  to  learn  and  academic  achievement  than  any  other particular family structure. In this study multiple transition family structure is the change of family, addition of step parent, and half siblings as a result of divorce and repeated divorce. Cherlin (2007) opined that children who experienced multiple transition in family are likely to drop out of school, complete fewer years of formal schooling, score lower on standardize examinations  than those from intact  homes living with both  biological  parents.  For high academic achievement, children should be motivated.

Motivation is an internal state that arouses, directs and maintains behavior Umeano (2012).  Mangal  (2008),  defined  motivation  as  something,  which  prompts,  compels  and energizes  an individual  to  act  or behave  in a particular  manner  at a  particular  time  for attaining some specific goal or purpose. This implies that a child who is motivated to learn will participate actively and otherwise will not participate actively in learning activities. A

general definition that is consistent with prior research is that motivation is the process by which goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained, Pintrich and Schunk (2002). Based on this,  motivation  could  be seen as the  force  that  initiates,  guides  and  maintains  goal- oriented behaviours such as learning in order to pass exams. For this study, motivation can be defined as that which instigates and compel the urge to learn in a child and helps him or her sustain the drive to a moderate increase.

Since motivation is that force that instigate the child, there is need to make available learning materials for the child to be motivated to learn and be successful. Gesinde (2000), posits that the  urge to succeed  varies  from one individual  to the  other.  While  for some individuals, the need for achievement  is high, for others it is  low and to some others it is moderate.  The  different  variations  could  be  that  motivation  to  learn  is  believed  to  be developed during socialization process. The urge could also come from the sources through which children are motivated, such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is the natural tendency to pursue personal interest and  exercise capabilities and in doing so, seek out and conquer challenges (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Children who demonstrate intrinsic motivation to learn, engage in academic task due to the enjoyment or satisfaction they derived from the task and the desire to learn. Extrinsic motivation on the other hand, comes as a result of one wanting to earn a  grade or reward, avoid punishment, and  please  the  teacher/parent  or  for  some  other  reasons.  Children  who  are  extrinsically motivated perform in order to obtain some rewards or avoid some punishment external to the activity itself, Mark Lepper (1998). In school both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be found  to  be  indispensable  in  children’s  sources  of  motivation  are  as a result  of  family structure. Motivation plays  an important role in every learning process. In China a lot of researchers pay attention to learner’s motivation. The notion is accepted that motivation can lead to successful learning (Butler, 2005). Therefore, understanding the situation of children’s

motivation will be helpful for the organization of various teaching activities. The quality of activities the children are engaged in will determine the level of their achievement.

Family can have a strong influence on children academic achievement. When parent believe in their children’s competence and have a high expectations for them,  provide the right environment for them to learn, then they get motivated which can in turn boost their academic achievement.

Academic achievement refers to how school children deal with their studies and how they cope  with  or  accomplish  different  tasks  given  to  them  by their  teachers  (Answers Corporaton,  2012).  Academic  achievement  is  viewed  in terms  of  ‘result’,  ‘success’  and

‘failure’,   eHow.com   (2012).   Flood,   Brensanger   &   Check   (2007)   defined   academic achievement in terms of a person’s Grade point average. For this study achievement is the result of effort put into a thing and academic achievement is the end result of all efforts or inputs an individual released into his/her academics.

The academic achievement of a child can be greatly influenced by the family structure of the child. The instability of family structure has become an increasingly salient part of children’s lives. The stress of family change is cumulative because any disruption requires re- adoption which may have negative influence on the child’s motivation to learn and academic achievement.

Usually in Primary Schools, children are drawn from different family structures with vary background, composition, descent and residence. The varying characteristics of family structure seem to have influence on the general children’s motivation to learn and academic achievement. The reason may be that different family structure provide some characteristics supportive or enhances motivation to learn and a conducive environment for their respective children. Such support may include love, time, availability of learning materials. Some family

structures are more constrained in ensuring the provision of essential children’s needs than others leading to varying children’s achievement levels.

Researches specifically concern with motivation and learning (Krapp, Renninger  & Hidi,  1992;  Schiefele,  Krapp  &  Wintler,  1992)  have  focused  on  two  components  of motivation, individual motivation and situational motivation. Individual motivation refers to relatively  stable  orientations  that  have developed  over  time.  Individual  motivation  has  a dispositional quantity, residing in the person across  situations (Renninger, 2000). Children having this type of motivation may come to class/school with a well developed motivation to learn.  For them,  learning tasks are  likely to trigger  more  motivation  in them.  Individual motivation is mainly triggered  through some previous involvement  with a particular  issue featured in the learning task.

Situational  motivation  on  the  other  hand,  refers  to  motivation  that  is  built  on a contextual feature that makes a task or activity motivating, and is depended on favourable environmental conditions in which learning occurs, (Boekaerts & Boscolo, 2002). Because it is dependent on the environment, situational motivation is said to be more transient in nature. Situational motivation is seen in a child when he/she is presented with tasks that are of high or low motivation to him/her. The level of motivation triggered when a child is presented with  a  set  of  learning  activities,  could  be  an  outcome  of  a  well  developed  individual motivation  through  various  experiences  acquired  before  the  child  walks  into  the  school environment  on which  family structure is not exempted. The National Common Entrance Examination  (NECO, 2014) grade distribution  from 2010 – 2014 result revealed  a mean failure rate of 66% of children who sat for the examination. It is viewed that family can have a   strong influence on a variety of school outcomes including the development and maintenances of positive motivation. Even the degree to which children view themselves as either male or female and the sex roles attached to them are based on the family structure

they are exposed to and these could enhance or make the child’s motivation to learn at school and academic achievement.

Gender is a process of socialization or the process whereby a child learns the norms and roles that society has created for him or her (Maccoby, 2000). This plays a significant role in the establishment of his or her sense of femaleness or maleness. If a child learns she is a female and is raised as a female, the child believes she is a female, on the other hand, if told he is a male and raised as a male, the child believes he is a male. Beginning at birth, most parents treats their children according to the child’s gender as determined by the appearance of genital. Children quickly develop a clear understanding that they are either female or male, as well as a strong desire to adopt gender  appropriate  mannerisms and behaviours. In fact biology determines the sex, but  interactions  with the environment  actually determines  the nature of gender identity.  It  has been demonstrated  that girls are often found to be more affected in their development by the quality of interaction with their family members, they are higher in their need for affection; seek to satisfy their affection needs more from family members and place greater importance on parents’ evaluations, (Wood, 2002). It would thus be reasonable to expect that girls interaction with parents may be greater than that of boys who   have   lower   parental   interactions;   greater   parental   permissiveness,   less   parental orientation and care (Oguntelure & Oloruntegbe, 2010). As a result, boys may have greater record of low motivation to learn at the early stage of life than girls. This is supported by the argument of some researchers that gender difference in children’s academic achievement is only as a result of family structure on children’s motivation to learn (Ajayi & Mba, 2008).

There  are  some  cultures  in  Nigeria  that  do  not  place  high  value  for  girl  child education.  Gbenga  (1996) for instance found that the low income earning Tiv  parents of Taraba state preferred to spend their meager resources on their male children’s education and to send their female children to their husband’s home quite early in life.  He found that this

goes  a  long  way  to  influencing  differentially  their  motivation  to  learn  and  academic achievement.

However,  being  that  the  world  today  and  Nigeria  in  particular  is  placing  much emphasis on gender equality. There is need to let families know that such movement should start from the home during child upbringing and socialization processes. Consequently, this study seeks to find out whether males and females that are exposed to same family structure will differ in motivation to learn and academic  achievement or not. And to find out which family  structure  positively  or  negatively  influence  children’s  motivation  to  learn  and academic achievement.

Statement of the Problem

Minna Metropolis, which covers Bosso Local Government Education, Authority and Chanchaga Local Government Education Authority. The people of these Local Government Education  Authorities  are predominantly  farmers,  traders  and civil  servants.  Prevalent  in these areas are the polygamous family structure and the multiple   transition family structure where women get married, divorced and keep repeating divorce, carrying these children from their biological father’s house to one step father’s  house and to another, changing   these children’s  school  regularly,  thereby  causing  family  and  educational  instability  for  these children. The level of motivation triggered when a child is presented with a set of learning activities could be an out come of a  well developed individual motivation through various experiences acquired before the  child walks into the school environment on which family structure is not exempted. The national common entrance examination (NECO, 2014) grade distribution from 2010 to 2014 result revealed in mean failure rate of 66% of children who sat for  the   examination.   It  is  viewed   that  children’s  motivation  to  learn  and  academic achievement  are  traceable  to  the  children’s  family  structure.  It  therefore  seems  that  the

children family structure in Minna Metropolis is faulty because of the failure rate of children and  parents  are not  aware  of their  roles in their  children’s  cognitive,  psychological  and learning development at the child’s early stage.

Therefore,  there  is  need  to  study the  influence  of  family  structure  on  children’s motivation  to  learn  and  academic  achievement.  In  addition,  there  have  been unresolved claims on the influence of gender in relation to family structure on children’s achievement. Therefore the problem of this study put in question form is: what is the influence of family structure on children’s motivation to learn and academic achievement in Minna Metropolis Niger State.

Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of the study is to find out the influence  of family structure  on children’s motivation to learn and academic achievement. Specifically, the study seeks to find out the:

1.        Influence of family structure (single, monogamous, polygamous & multiple  family transition) on children’s motivation to learn.

2.        Influence of family structure (single, monogamous, polygamous & multiple  family transition) on children’s academic achievement.

3.        Influence of gender on children’s motivation to learn.

4.        Influence of gender on children’s academic achievement.

Significance of the Study

Theoretically, sensitivity – Responsibility Theory of Attachment by Mary Ainsworth (1969)  posits  that  sensitive  and  responsive  care  giving  is  an  essential  requirement  for neurophysiological,  physical,  psychological  development  of a child.  These  are the major

factors responsible  for learning  in child  development  and could  be enhanced  or  married through family structure.  By this a justification  was made on the sensitive  and adequate responsive family structure for moderate motivation to learn and academic achievement.

Practically,  the  result  of  this  study  will  be  significant  to  the  children,  parents, educational  planners,  counselors  and primary school teachers.  This study will  serve as a guide to decide on the type of family structure they will want to practice. The findings of this study will benefit parents by informing them of the importance of motivation to children’s learning and it influence on their academic achievement. The children and the parents can be reached through seminars organized by the researchers in schools.

The  educational   planners   will  benefit   from  this   study  via  the   findings   and recommendations, which will be made available to them through social media. Base on the findings  of  this  study,  counsellors  will  be  able  to  predict  the  academic  achievement  of children based on their family structure and counsel them a right and  employ strategies to ensure that children that may likely achieve poorly in their academics are properly motivated to boost their academic achievement.

The result of this study will be useful to teachers teaching in primary schools,  to enable  them  carry  along  children  from  different  family  structure,  by applying  different teaching skills, to ensure that these children are not left out, but that the lessons are being inculcated into them. Teachers will be able to use various motivational strategies, to motivate, to teach and boost the academic achievement of the children. Teachers will be informed on how to handle situations of this sort themselves.

Teachers will be informed of the finding and trained on how to carry along children whose  family do  not  properly motivate  them  to  learn thereby  negatively  influence  their academic achievement.

Scope of the Study

This study was conducted in Niger State and was limited to Minna Methropolis, Niger State.  Precisely,  Chanchaga  Local  Government  Education  Authority  and  Bosso  Local Government Education Authority, specifically this study is limited to primary five children. This   study  examined   the   influence   of  different   family   structures;   single   parenting, monogamous,   polygamous,   multiple   transition   family   structure,   and   gender   related differences on children’s motivation to learn and academic achievement.

Research Questions

The following research questions guide the study:

1.        How  does  family  structure  (single,  monogamous,  polygamous  &  multiple  family transition) influence children’s motivation to learn?

2.        How  does  family  structure  (single,  monogamous,  polygamous  &  multiple  family transition) influence children’s academic achievement?

3.        How does gender influence children’s motivation to learn?

4.        How does gender influence children’s academic achievement?

Research Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and tested at 0.05 levels of significance include:

HO1:   There   is   no   significant   influence   of   family   structure   (single,   monogamous, polygamous & multiple family transition) on children’s motivation to learn.

HO2:   There   is   no   significant   influence   of   family   structure   (single,   monogamous, polygamous & multiple family transition) on children’s academic achievement.

HO3:   Gender has no significant influence on children’s motivation to learn. HO4:   Gender has no significant influence on children’s academic achievement.

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