CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood (Kali and Biro, 2011). Adolescence is a period of 12-18 years of an individual’s life. Adolescence is an important and distinct phase of life. This is because it is a period characterized by repaid growth and social development. According to Erickson (1902), adolescence is the stage of “storm and stress”. According to the scholar adolescent period is a stage where teens compare themselves with other peers. Chukwuka (2012) explained adolescence as a stage that is full of one’s aspiration and potential in life. Chukwuka further explained that the adolescent at this period has a dream and potential to achieve educationally, socially and economically in his society. Palaye (2001) describes adolescence as a period of high ambition and aspiration for oneself characterized with rapid change.
Adolescence is seen as the time when there is a shift of interests from parents to peers and ends with development of capacity for intimacy. From the above it can be stated that adolescence is a period during which intense physical, emotional and psychological changes accompanied by series of developmental tasks that take place within the individual.
Generally, the period of adolescence has a lot of implications on the lives of adolescents especially with regard to their activities in the school. This is because it is the period the adolescents tend to exhibit characters that will make them noticeable or popular among colleagues. Oni (2010) states that adolescents in the school tend to be recognized and hailed as being popular either through their possession of social competence or high academic achievement. The author further adds that a key aspect of adolescence is sexual development which is characterized by qualitative changes in physical growth, emotional and exhibition of behaviours that will lead to his popularity in schools. Popularity can be achieved by the adolescents through possession of social competence in sports or academics especially in secondary schools.
Popularity could be one of the driving forces among adolescents in secondary schools especially with regard to their self concept. Popularity means having a well established social place among peers who want to be with one, with whom one has social standing, with whom one can hang out, and who can provide the acceptable companionship on needs (Schwartz, Gorman, Nakamoto and McKay, 2006). Adolescents who are popular are well socialized among their peers. They also appear to have increasing levels of delinquent and drug-using behaviours because they would want to be noticed all the time. Harris, (2007) states that adolescent popularity if not well controlled could lead adolescents into problems that may affect their academic activities in school. In this context popularity refers to the extent adolescents are admired and are being liked by a large number of school mates in schools.
Similarly, attaining popularity with a broad group of peers is conceptually and behaviourally distinct from the ability to manage the intensity of a relationship with best friends. In secondary schools, popular students often command the respect and support of others sometimes positively or negatively. Some students can be popular through their performances in academics or sports while others achieve popularity because they display heady and assert negative tendencies like disobeying school teachers and their seniors. However such show of negative popularity can be one of the major factors contributing to poor academic achievement of some adolescents in secondary schools.
Achievement means the attainment or the accomplishment of a desired goal. Achievement is a goal that can be successfully attained through hard work. Academic achievement is a concept explained in many ways by different scholars. Keeves, (2005) defines academic achievement as the actualization of the educational standard and appropriate goals as the major objective function of school in the society. This implies one being able to accomplish his desires with respect to educational goals, aims and objectives which are achieved through effort and competence in studies. Scort (2005) defines academic achievement as an educational outcome demonstrating excellence in academic disciplines, either or both, in classroom and in extracurricular activities. This means that academic achievement of the student is the ability of that student to study and remember facts and being able to communicate his knowledge orally or on paper.
Academic achievement means how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish various tasks given to them by their teachers. Educational performance or achievement equally describes the extent to which educational goals have been achieved by both the students, teachers or even educational institution. In this context academic achievement refers to the adolescent’s realization of his academic objectives in secondary school through which he may become popular among his colleagues. Apart from possession of high academic achievement as a tool for achieving popularity an adolescent may also excel in other areas of social competence such as in sports, dancing, acting and singing amongst others.
Social competence is highly valued in most societies. There are different dimensions of competence and these manifest in different ways. Examples of competencies include academic competence, behavioural competence and social competence. Social competence deals with how effective a person is in his or her social interactions. Scort (2005) defines social competence as the capacity of an adolescent to function effectively within a given social context. Such context makes the adolescent to have a sense of belonging; to be valued and to have opportunities to contribute meaningfully in the society. Socially competent adolescents are accepted by their peers and very often maintain high degree of relationship in the school. As applied in this study social competence is a special quality possessed by an adolescent in school that makes him/her popular among his/her colleagues in the schools. This could be in the field of sports or a manifestation of high academic achievement in school subjects.
Social competence, irrespective of gender describes student’s skill or ability in specific subjects or being able to do something well like having skill in relating and interacting with people. Raven and Stephenson (2001) stated that competence grows through experience and the extent an individual can learn and adapt. Males appear to demonstrate more social competence in science related subjects than females in some cases. Santrock (2009) observed that females tend to exhibit more competence in language related subjects than males in schools. In other words social competence affects the achievement of males and females in their schools activities and can also affect their popularity among peers. An adolescent with positive social competence is said to have good interpersonal relationship with others.
Social competence with regard to gender is one of the foundations upon which expectation for future interaction with others is built, and upon which individuals develop perceptions of their own behaviour (Spence, 2003). Spence further stated that social skill describes the child’s knowledge of the ability to use a variety of social behaviours that are appropriate to a given interpersonal situations that are pleasing to others in each situation. The capacity to inhibit negative social behaviours could also be a reflection of social skill and this could also be reflected in the adolescents’ academic activities or achievement in schools.
Regrettably in Enugu Education Zone there have been reported cases of students’ poor academic achievement in West Africa Examination Councils’ (WAEC) results in recent times. The trend of poor achievements in different school subjects in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State has been confirmed by the recent West African Examinations councils’ (WAEC) Chief Examiners’ Reports for the years: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. These reports show that students’ achievements were poor in many subjects. For instance, the West African Examinations Councils’ (WAEC) report of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 indicated that only 24.94%, 30.99%, 25.99%, 29.27% and 31.28% of the candidates who sat for the examinations obtained five credits including Mathematics and English language, which are the basic requirements for admission into Nigerian universities (WAEC, 2010-2014). These poor results were attributed to the students’ poor study habit relating to their delinquent and drug-abusing behaviours for popularity and social competence in the area.
Most of the students believe that with their popularity and high degree of social competence among their peers that they can easily obtain their WAEC through sharp practices like examination mal-practice and other vices. Hence, they no longer pay attention to their academic activities. This no doubt is of great concern to parents and guardians as well as other stakeholders in education in Enugu Education Zone. It is against this background that the present study examines popularity as a predictor of academic achievement and social competence among schooling adolescents in the zone.
Statement of the Problem
Adolescence is a crucial stage in the development of every individual. It is a stage in which an adolescent seeks to establish his identity. As some adolescents interact with others in the school, they aspire to achieve certain levels of popularity which may or may not affect their life endeavour in the future with regard to their academic achievement in schools. This popularity can be achieved through possession of outstanding qualities in academic activities or social competences such as in sports, dancing and drama amongst others by the adolescents. These traits if not well controlled by individuals can affect them in school activities negatively. Unfortunately, there seems to be increasing poor achievement of students in WAEC examinations in recent years in Enugu Education Zone. Through interaction with the teachers in the zone the poor results were attributed to increasing delinquent behaviours of the students associated with popularity and social competence among their colleagues in schools. Most of these students no longer pay attention to their academic activities in the school. This is a source of worry to school authorities, teachers and parents alike in the zone. It calls for an urgent solution in order to control the ugly situation.
Therefore, the problem of this study put in a question form is: To what extent does popularity predict social competence and academic achievement of senior secondary class two (SSII) students in Enugu Education Zone?
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of the study is to determine the extent popularity predicts adolescents’ academic achievement and social competence in Enugu Education Zone. Specially, the study intends to:
Determine the extent popularity predicts adolescents’ academic achievement.
Determine the extent popularity predicts adolescents’ social competence.
Determine the influence of gender in popularity as a predictor of academic achievement.
Determine the influence of gender in popularity as a predictor of social competence.
Significance of the Study
The findings of this study will be of theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, this study is anchored on Goal Framing Theory (Lindenberg, 2006) that places emphasis that various goals “frame” of an individuals’ perception determines the degree of effort and determination towards achieving such goals. The findings of the study will help to extend the assumptions of the theory through schooling adolescents’ efforts towards popularity and social competence to achieve academically in schools. Practically, the findings of this study will be of immense benefits to students, teachers, parents, and future researchers.
The findings of the study will be of immense benefits to students because of its emphasis on the relationship between popularity and academic achievement. If eventually popularity is found to be a predictor to school achievement it then means that students should do as much as possible to acquire popularity so as to enable them achieve higher in schooling.
The findings of this study will also be beneficial to teachers because if popularity will actually be a predictor to social competence among adolescents, then teachers will learn to design measures on how to help unpopular students to become popular so as to acquire social competence.
The findings of the study will reveal to the parents the likelihood of popularity in predicting academic achievement and social competence of their children. This will enable the parents to design measures on how to help their children improve on them.
The findings of this study will be of immense benefit to future researchers in that it will provide a working document for theoretical and empirical evidence in the related area not covered by the present study.
Scope of Study
The study was delimited to senior secondary schools (SSII) in public secondary schools in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu state. The content scope focused on determining the extent popularity predicts adolescent’s academic achievement, social competence, the extent popularity in gender predicts adolescent’s academic achievement as well as social competence in schools.
Research Questions
The following research question guided the study:
To what extent does popularity predict adolescents’ academic achievement?
To what extent does popularity predict adolescents’ social competence?
To what extent does gender influence popularity as a predictor of adolescents’ academic achievement?
To what extent does gender influence popularity as a predictor of adolescents’ social competence?
Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses guided the study and were tested at 0.05 levels of significance
Popularity does not significantly predict adolescents’ academic achievement.
Popularity does not significantly predict adolescents’ social competence
Gender does not significantly influence popularity as a predictor of adolescents’ academic achievement.
Gender does not significantly influence popularity as a predictor of adolescents’ social competence.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter presents the review of literature under the following sub-headings: conceptual framework, theoretical framework, review of empirical studies and the summary of review of literature.
Conceptual Framework
Concept of Adolescence
Concept of Secondary Education
Concept of Popularity
Concept of Social Competence
Concept of Academic Achievement
Concept of Gender
Relationship among adolescent popularity, social competence and achievement
Theoretical Framework
Goal Framing Theory by Lindenberg, 2006
Features Theory by Bukowski, Sippola and Newcomb, 2000
Review of Empirical Studies
Studies on popularity as a predictor of adolescents’ academic achievement.
Studies on popularity as a predictor of adolescents’ social competence
Studies on influence of gender in popularity as a predictor of adolescents’ academic achievement.
Studies on influence of gender in popularity as a predictor of adolescents’ social competence.
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