Influence of Parental Marital Status, Family Type and Size on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in Agricultural Science in Adamawa State Nigeria

This study used ex-post facto and correlation survey to investigate the influence of marital status, family size and type on academic performance of senior secondary students in Adamawa State. The population of the study consisted of 8,548 students in class 2 in 2012/13 to 2013/14 academic sessions. A total sample of 900 students was drawn from the population using multi-stage random sampling technique to respond to the instrument for data collection for the study. The instrument was a 40 items researcher designed questionnaire titled Home Environment Factors and Students’ Academic Achievement Test in Agricultural Science (HEFSAATAS) consisting of two sections A and B. Inferential statistics z-test and correlation analysis were used to describe, analyse and interpret the data. The results showed that parental marital status (r = 0.79) and family size (r = 0.81) were highly correlated with students’ academic performance while family type (z = 3.48, significant at P< 0.05, 1.96), family size and parental marital status have significant influence on students’ performances in Agricultural Science at the secondary school. It was recommended that parents should maintain intact marriage and family institutions for good parenting; and keep family sizes and types they can sponsor, run and maintain.