ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to investigate the influence of parenting styles on in school adolescents’ achievement orientation and academic achievement in secondary schools in Enugu State. The design of the study is ex-post facto while the population comprised all SS II Students in Enugu North. The sample size for the study was 296 respondents while the researchers’ self developed questionnaires formed the instruments for data collection. Three experts validated the instruments and a Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient method was employed to ensure the reliability of the instruments. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study; while the t –test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significant. A review of empirical studies was carried out to guide the researchers into previous studies in the area and also to provide the researcher with the theoretical base. Two sets of questionnaires were used to collect data for the study while t- test statistics was used to analyze the data. The researcher found that the authoritative parenting style has more positive influence on achievement orientation and academic achievement of in-school adolescents and the influence of gender on in-school adolescents’ achievement orientation is not significant.

Keywords: Parenting styles, adolescents, achievement orientation and academic achievement