Influence of Household Structure on Academic Achievement of Senior High School Students in the Bosome-Freho District, Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out the influence of household structure on the academic achievement of students in the Bosome Freho District of the Ashanti Region. Descriptive design was used for the study. The target population for this study consisted of all senior high school students in Bosome Freho District of the Ashanti region. Purposive sampling was used to select the public senior high schools in the district. A self-designed questionnaire developed by the researcher and students’ test scores were used for the data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used for the interpretation of the data analysis. One way Analysis of Variance was used to test hypothesis one and independent t-test was used to test research hypotheses two and three. Results of the study clearly showed that on the average, students perceived that socio-economic status of the household, to greater extent, affected students’ academic achievements. The study also revealed that students from smaller family sizes had higher academic achievement as compared to those from larger family sizes. Moreover, the study revealed that students from two-parent families performed better than students from single parent families. Also, the study found out that the academic achievement of students in male-headed households and female-headed households were the same. It is recommended that the government should support students from low socio-economic households with the necessary academic materials to enable them perform better. Also, the Ghana Education Service should therefore educate parxiients on the adverse effects of larger family size with no preparation to cater for their academic needs fully