Influence of psychological issues on students academic performance in public secondary schools in Migori county, Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya examinations are used to assess the level of academic achievements of students. There is worry when students fail in examinations and so the stakeholders would ask themselves the reasons why. One of the areas mostly ignored and is least addressed is psychological issues and the impact on the academic performance of the students. The purpose of this study was to establish influence of psychological issues on students‟ academic performance. The following objectives guided the study; to establish the influence of psychological issues on the students‟ academics, contribution of home based psychosocial issues and impact of school based psychosocial issues on academic performance and the interventional measures that would address the psychological issues in public secondary schools. The research questions and null hypothesis were drawn from the objectives of the study. A theoretical framework based on Bronfenbrenners ecological systems theory was used in the study. The study adopted a concurrent triangulation research design and was carried out in public secondary schools in Migori County. The target population included 187 principals, 26350 form 3 students, and 187 Guidance and Counseling masters. The study adopted stratified sampling techniques to choose schools, simple random sampling to select 30% of the principals and guidance and counseling tutors. A total of 56 principals, and 56 G/C tutors were included. The researcher used form three students who were 379 students. Questionnaires, interviews, document analysis and focus group discussions were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from the participants. Content validity of the research instruments were ascertained by the experts in the school of education, Rongo University. Reliability of the instrument was determined by test retest procedure and reliability coefficient of +0.7 was reported. 2 principals, 2 HODs and 24 students from four secondary schools were randomly selected for piloting. Qualitative data was drawn from open ended questions, interviews, focus group discussions were transcribed, coded, analyzed but Quantitative data was analyzed by both descriptive statistics presented in graphs, tables and charts and inferential statistics specifically ANOVA, Pearson Correlation and regression analysis were used to determine the influence/ relationships between independent and dependent variables. Each psychological issue was regressed to evaluate collective influence on student performance and a coefficient of 14.9% was observed. ANOVA output showed psychological issues as a significant predictor to students academic performance F (3,323) =18.784, P=.000 <.05; R= .149 thus variation in the level of psychological issues explains 15% of the variability in academic performance, home based issues accounted for 24.3% of the variation in the students‟ academic performance. Lastly regression analysis showed school based psychosocial issues accounts for about 17% of the variability in academic performance. The study findings may help the Ministry of Education and school managements, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development to focus more on psychosocial issues in the secondary schools in the country. It may also help in further research by enabling other researchers to conduct a similar in other areas to come up with strategies and mechanisms geared towards filling counseling gaps and to strengthen the provision of psychosocial support programs in the learning institutions.