CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Education is a basic tool used by society for transmission of its societal values. It has become an area of prime importance not only for government or voluntary agencies but also for individuals, families, governments and communities (Ebong, 2015).Parents play an integral role in the upbringing of a child. Parents are the main care givers expected to provide guidance, protection and motivation to their children so as to be able to live a better life. For the achievement of quality education a partnership of parents and teachers in injecting valuable skills, conduct, and knowledge to the learners is necessary (Deutscher & Ibe, 2014). It  is  well  established  that parents matter  greatly  for  their  children’s  development  and  success  both in and out of school. Yet there are nocertain strategies for raising confident, caring, happy, and successful children. Teachers,  also,  work  industriously  to  nurture  their  learners’  academic  accomplishment  and  emotional  and  social  development (Van Voorhis, Maier, Epstein, Lloyd, 2013). Consequently, parent involvement is encouraged by teachers, childcare providers, policy makers, and researchers (Duch, 2009; Sheldon & Epstein, 2009). Factors that affect children’s education attainment have been studied for years, and kinds of areas are concerned. One of the main arguments is whether parental income affects children’s academic attainments or not. Krueger and Lindahl (2009) found that financial condition significantly impacts on children’s education. According to Haveman and Wolfe (2010), the family is regarded as a production unit which put resources to generate utility for its members. Adult make decisions based on the economic condition and children are affected choices that parents have made. As a result of that, in high income family, children’s academic attainment will be high due to parents are able to put more resources on children’s education and children are access to education more easily. What’s more, surrounding environment has a clear impact on people.   The course of a child’s development arises from an interaction of congenital, familial, cultural, and environmental factors. These and a wide range of other variables play a crucial role in cognitive development and a child’s learning abilities. Cognitive performance is often related to physical health (Dewa & Lin, 2010). Thus, children who experience medical distress are at risk for low academic achievement (Spernak, Schottenbauer, Ramey, & Ramey, 2013). Moreover, poor health impedes participation in daily school activities (Hanson, Austin, & LeeBayha, 2010). Frequent absence, discomfort or pain, movement limitations, sleepiness, physical and psychological side effects of received medications among other factors limit students’ abilities to engage in the education process (Fowler, Davenport, & Garg, 2011). In addition to the harmful outcomes related to school functioning, children with poor state of health experience restrictions in developing critical emotional compatibility with teachers (Needham, Crosnoe, & Muller, 2010). Furthermore, as a significant body of research has asserted, a child’s state of health predicts low educational level, social and economic inequalities, and behavior problems experienced into adulthood (Case, Fertig, & Paxon, 2009; Needham et al., 2010; Palloni, 2013). Considering the crucial role health occupies in a children educational development, it is crucial for school psychologists to become responsible for leading efforts to improve students’ state of health and consequently minimize the risk associated with various medical issues. Health behavior is closely related to academic achievement (Sigfu´ sdo´ttir, Kristja´ansson, & Allegrante, 2007); therefore, improving a child’s state of health has the potential to be a valuable protective factor in the improvement of child’s performance (Roberts, Freed, & McCarthy, 2010; Taras & PottsDatema, 2009; Telford et al., 2012). A child’s state of health, and in particular physical fitness, is associated with improved confidence, increased attention, reduction in health problems, improved social engagement, reduction in obesity, increased organization, and a host of potentially protective factors for students at risk for poor school outcomes (Sallis, 2010). It is against this backdrop that the study, discriminate analysis on child’s performance based on parental income marital status and child state of health is being examined.

1.2      STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Among the several factors that have been linked to their child’s performance at school is the parent’s level of income, parent marital status and child state of health. According to Mayer, a casual observation is that the children of affluent parents are more likely to succeed in life than the children of poor parents probably because the rich parents spend more than poor parents on their children and these “investments” lead to better outcomes for their children. It is not out of place to imagine that parental socio-economic background can have possible effects on the academic achievement of children in school. When parents are financially capacitated, have a sound marital status and also give moral support to the children by guiding their reading at home, the students perform better than their counterparts. Although it has been argued that the most accurate predictor of students’ achievement is the extent to which the family is involved in the child’s education, and not the family‘s level of income, marital status and child’s state of health. There are many factors affecting child’s performance that one could look at, but in this study the research has taken a discriminate analysis on child’s performance based on parental income, marital status, and child state of health.

1.3 AIMS OF THE STUDY                   

The major aim of the study is to examine discriminate analysis on child’s performance based on parental income, marital status, and child state of health. Other specific objectives of the study include;

1         To examine the effect of parent income on child’s performance.

2         To examine the effect of marital status on child’s performance.

3         To examine the influence of parent income, marital status, and child state of health on child’s performance.

4         To examine the effect of child state of health on child’s performance.

5         To examine the relationship between parent income, marital status, child state of health and child’s performance.

5.1      RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1         What is the effect of parent income on child’s performance?

2         What is the effect of marital status on child’s performance?

3         What is the influence of parent income, marital status, and child state of health on child’s performance?

4         What is the effect of child state of health on child’s performance?

5         What is the relationship between parent income, marital status, child state of health and child’s performance?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Hypothesis 1

H0: There are is no significant influence of parent income, marital status, and child state of health on child’s performance.

H1: There is a significant influence of parent income, marital status, and child state of health on child’s performance.

Hypothesis 2

H0: There is no significant relationship between parent income, marital status, child state of health and child’s performance.

H1: There is a significant relationship between parent income, marital status, child state of health and child’s performance.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The findings of the study would expose the role of financing educational attainment and child’s performance. It will guide financing and other educational policies as well as investments/inventions by parents, guardians, educational planners and the government for more improvement. The focus of bridging the gap between family income, marital status, child state of health and child’s performance would be achieved as soon as possible if the recommendations of this study are effectively implemented. The study would also be of immense benefit to students, researchers and scholars who are interested in developing further studies on the subject matter.

1.7 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study is restricted to discriminate analysis on child’s performance based on parental income, marital status, and child state of health.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

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)

Time constraint: The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

Parent: "Parent" means an individual who has established a parent-child relationship. "Putative father" means the alleged or reputed father. Ala. Code § 26-18-3 “Parents” are defined as the legal or biological parents of a child, inclusive of a putative father.

Child: A child means every human being below the age of 18 years. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989. Article 1: For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.