Comparative Relationship between Parental Socio-Economic-Status and Performance among Secondary School Students in Osun State, Nigeria

The study investigated the influence of parental socio-economic status (income, education, occupation, involvement and cultural beliefs) on students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Osun State. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population covered parents and students in public senior secondary schools in the state. Simple random sampling technique was adopted for parents while multi-stage random technique was adopted for students from selected public senior secondary schools in Osun State. The total number of respondents for this study was 3,350 respondents, constituting 1,675 students and 1,675 parents. However, only 1,560 returned their instruments. The instruments used in the study were: Parental Socio-economic Status Questionnaire (PSSQ) and Academic Achievement Test (AAT) deduced from past SS III students’ WAEC questions on English Language and Mathematics was administered to students who responded to (PSSQ). Results revealed a poor performance from the attainment test while cultural factors appeared to be the only predictor of academic success; income, occupation, parental involvement, academic status all had no significant relationship with students’ academic performance. The reliability figures for the variables were; income status: 0.75, educational status: 0.81, Occupational status: 0.71, level of involvement: 0.70, cultural beliefs: 0.71, attainment scores: 0.75. Simple percentage, mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while regression was used for the hypothesis. Based on the findings, it was recommended that, the Governments and policymakers should ensure that schools in Osun State are adequately equipped with teaching materials. Also, there is need for an improvement in infrastructure and provision of regular professional development for teachers to support effective learning. Keywords: Parental Socio-Economic, Students, Academic Performance.