1.1 Introduction
Family background refers to all the conditions and circumstances in the family which influence the child physically, intellectually and emotionally (Muola, 2010). Children coming from different family backgrounds are affected different by such family condition and that is why some children have good family background while some have poor background. Citing Eke (2009) noted that with some families, the background may vary from time to time for the same individuals. Formal education therefore remains the vehicle for human development which must start from the family. There are different categories of families. A family could also be categorized as extended or nuclear. Extended families are those in which large group of related kin in addition to parents and children live together in the same household.
This chapter will address the background information that motivated this study, the challenges that prompted it, its aim, and its objectives as a preface to subsequent sections of the study. Additional factors include the study's significance, scope, limitations, research questions and hypotheses, and the definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of the Study
The family is important in many ways in the life of an ordinary child. A family refers to the household or all those who live in a house such as parents and their children. When a child is born, his first contact(s) with the world is family (parents). He is first exposed to before any contact with the outside world.
According to Clifford (2011) family remains the primary environment of the child. The author emphasized that family environment has more chances of increasing or decreasing the intellectual performance of the child. Parents who are of in more lucrative job would have more or enough fund to expand on the basic needs and academic requirement of their children, particularly in the subjects that are core in secondary education, particularly mathematics. Education is likely to provide different ways for the needs of their children and inhabit different aspects of cognitive, emotional and motivational development. Individuals in the society as well as families are different in all aspect of life; determining factors of such are the educational level, occupation and income of the family.
The family background of a child plays a distinctive role in a child's growth and development of a child depends solely on his/her physical inheritance and the powerful influences emanating from the environment i.e. nature and nurture (Osarenre, 1996). The family background and environment in which a child grows up determine what he inherits from nature and what he gets from nurture. According to Plomim (1990), shatter (1993), human attributes and personality are end products of the interaction between heredity and environment.
There are two factors that affect school performance of students these are these home related factors and the school related factors. The home related factors include parental education occupation, family size, parental attitude to education and their expectation, parental involvement in child's academic, parenting style and so on. The home is a factor that makes a difference in school environment (Banjo, 1961, Plowdem 1967, Bowler and Levim 1968, Marijobanks, 1973, Parke, 1978, Taiwo, 1981).
The report of Plowden (1967) revealed that ‘a students' family background proves to be a more significant predictor of his/her achievement than the input provided by the school system. Bowler and Levim (1968) observed that the family background characteristics of a set of students determine not only the advantages with which they come to school but they are also associated closely with the amount and quality of resources that are invested in the school. As a result of this, they argued further that children from rich family background have two distinctive advantages over the children from poor family background. First, the combination of material advantages and strong educational interest provided by their parents stimulate high achievement and education motivation and second, their parents' relatively high income and interest in their education lead to stronger financial support for and greater participation in the school that their children attend.
According to Lam, Shui Fong (1997) there is several variables in students' family background that has direct influence on their academic performance among which are the socio-economic status of students' parents and family relationship i.e parent-child relationship. Socio-economic status influences educational achievement. Naturally, some students will perform better than others in the class, but the degree to which family background factors contribute to this natural phenomenon should be studied to reduce the effect of socio-economic differences on the natural event.
The level of parental education as a family background of home related factor is also a contributing factor. According to Fafunwa (1963), the level of education of those with whom a child lives influences his/her academic achievement. If there is a considerable number of educated people in the home in which a child grows, he will be able to discus his/her academic problems with them.
Femi (2012) in his study says, socio-economic and education background of parents is not significant factors in students' performance. Osuafor (2013) in their research on influence of family background on academic achievement of secondary school Biology students revealed that family structure, parents' occupation and educational level of parents did not have significant influence on students' achievement in biology.
Memon (2010) in his study revealed that majority of students whose parents were well educated perform better in matriculation examination as compared to those students whose parents were less educated or illiterate.
Manalanga and Awelani (2014) concluded in their result that the possible factors responsible for the poor performance in Biology 5090 include lack of financial support, lack of equipped libraries, lack of laboratories and Biology textbooks, method of teaching and accessing Biology 5090. Furthermore, practical Biology exam if highly scored improves the Biology grade. Teachers should be encouraging to asses learners regularly on practical skills. Perhaps, more practical lessons should be availed and documented so that teachers should plan for them and regular inspection to insure the actual order is adhered to (Wabuke, 2013).
1.3 Statement of the Problem
The problems of mass failure and rampant cases of examination malpractices among youths at the secondary level of education in Nigeria is a factor that has been working against expansion of education at all levels of education in Nigeria. in the bid to contribute to the explanation on students performance, the study sought to examine the effect of family background variables in secondary school students' Academic performance in Biology.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim or purpose of the study is to examine the effect of family background variables, socio-economic status, and family relations an academic achievement of SS2 students in Biology in selected secondary schools in Onigbonbo Local Government Area of Lagos State.
Specifically, the aim of this study can be achieved with the aid of the laid out research objectives which are stated as follows:
- To determine the relationship between family relation and academic achievement of respondents in Biology;
- To investigate the effect of family background on the educational performance of students' in biology;
- To determine whether educational attainment of parent affect students' academic performance in biology;
- To ascertain the influence of family size on educational upbringing of biology students; and
- To find out the relationship between parental socio-economic status and academic achievement of respondents in Biology.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Do the relationships that exist among the students and members of their family affect the students' academic performance in Biology?
- Does the educational attainment of parent affect students' academic performance in biology?
- Does the socio-economic status (SES) of the parents of the students has effect on the quality of the support the parents provide for the students to enhance their academic performance in Biology?
- Is there a relationship between that parents' educational level and the student's academic performance in Biology?
- What is the effect of parents socio-economic status as measured by their occupation, residence and properties owned on the academic performance of the students in Biology?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0; There is no significant relationship between parental socio-economic status and academic achievement of respondents in Biology.
- H1; There is significant relationship between parental socio-economic status and academic achievement of respondents in Biology.
Hypothesis Two
- H0; There is no significant effect of family background on the educational performance of students' in biology.
- H1; There is significant effect of family background on the educational performance of students' in biology.
1.7 Significance of Study
The findings of this research is significant in that the data collected will provide information on the perceived relationship between family background variables and academic achievement of secondary school students in Biology. This study should help parents to create an appropriate learning environment at home to enhance academic performance of their children. Also, it will help in improving the relationship between parents and their children (students).
Additionally, this study will enable parents and teachers to appreciate the difficulties the students encounter during learning process and how these can affect their academic performances. This will in other words, help to foster interaction and understanding between teachers and students, parents and students since both parents and teachers have the knowledge and understanding of the effect of the family background on academic achievement.
Furthermore, the outcome of this study will be beneficial to teachers, educators and school counselors in dealing with students' problem.
Finally, the study is significant in that it will make good contribution to existing literature on effects of family background on academic achievement.
1.8 Scope of the Study
This study is limited to three secondary schools in Onigbongbo Local Government Area of Lagos State. The work studies the effect of parents' socio-economic status on the academic achievements of the students in Biology.
1.9 Limitation of the Study
During the course of this study, there were some problems encountered which stood as limitations to the research work. Some of the limitations include:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this research work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
- Initial Cooperation Delay from Respondents: A particular limitation of this work came as a result of the respondent refusal to offer their cooperation at the initial time they were contacted. This contributed in making the success of this research study difficult.
1.10 Definitions of Terms
Biology:
It is defined as the study of life and structure of living things. Biology is the study of living things and concerns itself with the study of the structural, behaviour, distribution, the origin of plants, and animals and their relationship with their environment (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 2009).
Academic Performance:
It is the scores attained in form one end of year examination.
Secondary School:
This is the next step up from primary school. Secondary schools are often called high schools in the United States. In Britain, secondary schools may be public schools, grammar schools or comprehensive schools.
Socio-economic Status:
This is defined as the educational qualification, occupation and income of an individual or a family.
Family Background Variables:
These are the differences in the socio-economic status of the different families that make up a community or society.
