EFFECT OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND PARENTAL CARE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE; (A CASE STUDY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL IN IREPODUN/IFELODUN LOCAL GOVERNMENT, EKITI STATE)

Arowosegbe Christanah Kehinde & Solomon Ifeoluwa Damilare

Department of Psychology,

Faculty of the Social Science,

Ekiti State University, Ekiti

ABSTRACT

The study was designed to investigate the effects of perceived social support, emotional intelligence and parental care on academic performance of secondary school in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government which was done in Iworoko community High school, Iworoko Ekiti. The method used for the collection of data was the questionnaire method and three instruments were used namely: Berlin social support scale, The Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test and Parental care scale. A total of 200 participants consisting of 98 males and 102 females drawn from three classes SS1class, SS2 class and SS3class, 78 students drawn from SS1 class, 48 students from SS2 class and 74 students from SS3 class. Four hypotheses were tested. The test of hypothesis one that there will be a significant effect of emotional intelligence on academic performance using the independent t-test analysis yielded a result of a significance influence of emotional intelligence on academic performance ( t (198) = 2.28 P < .05). The test of hypothesis two that there will be a significant effect of perceived social support on academic performance using the  independent t-test analysis revealed that there was no significant influence of parental care on academic performance ( t (198) = -.571 p > .05). The test of hypothesis three that there will be a significant effect of parental care on academic performance using the independent t-test revealed that there is no significant influence of parental care on academic performance t (198) = -.629 p > .05). The test of hypothesis four that there will be a significant difference in the academic performance between male and female using the independent t-test analysis revealed that there is no significant influence of gender on academic performance t (198)=1.911 p> .05).In conclusion the study has been able to confirm that there is an effect of emotional intelligence on academic performance, there is no effect of social support on academic performance, and also there is no effect of parental care on academic performance. This study also confirmed that there is no effect of gender on academic performance. Findings are discussed according to the literature and it was recommended that future studies could investigate secondary school from more diverse environment. It would be important to learn how the implementation of a curriculum like Self-Science contributes to academic performance with more a diverse student population.

Key Words: Social support, Emotional Intelligence, Academic performance, Parental Care.