Influence of Family Background on Academic Achievement of Students in Delta State, Nigeria

The study examined family background and academic achievement of secondary school students in Delta State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the investigation. The study employed ex-post-facto research design of correlation method. The population of this study consisted of 117196 which is broken down as 116719 senior secondary school (SS1-SS111) students and 477 principals in all the public secondary schools across the 25 local government area of Delta State during the 2021/2022 academic session. The sample for the study comprised 384 senior secondary school students. Stratified sampling technique and simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample for the study. Questionnaire and Academic Achievement Checklist (AAC)’’ were the two instruments used for data collection for the study. The questionnaire was administered to respondent by the researcher with the help of two research assistants. Data analysis in answer to the first research questions were conducted using mean and standard deviation, The two research question was answered using Pearson coefficient of determination (r2). The hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study showed that parents’ level of education, and socio-economic status predicts students’ academic achievement. There is a significant relationship between socio-economic status and students’ academic achievement in Delta State public secondary schools. The study recommends that parents should continue to support their child academically so that they can be good and excellent academically.