effect of family background on academic performance

Introduction

Success, in an educational institution is measured by academic performance. Over the years, the importance of students doing well in school has become the common concern of parent, legislators, teachers, counselors and psychologist. According to Bell (2002), parents devote a lot of resources to their children 's education because they believe that good academic performance will provide a stable future for them. Also, Wilkins (2001) opined that many educational authorities have sought to find out reasons for the downward trend in the academic performance of secondary school students.

Uwaifo (2008) attributed the cause of poor academic performance of children to a combination of personal and institutional factors. The Personal factors include the level of individual 's intelligence, knowledge and ability, while institutional factors are family or parental influence. Olayinka (2004) pointed out that the family is the bed rock of any society. Obayan (2003) reported that a stable and well developed childhood can be guaranteed by a stable family. The current bad economic status of the country has exposed children to undesirable challenges that have negatively affected their academic performance in school. This observation agrees with the report of Adeyinka (2009) that maladaptive behavior arise when parents lack responsibility of their parenthood and that children that were raised from economically disadvantaged background are more likely to have poor academic performance because they lack some basic amenities such as food, clothing and shelter. Abiri and Jekayinfa (2010) agreed that Nigeria is yet to have a philosophy of education when the economic status of the country is unstable. Petit et al (2003) pointed out that psychological needs are potential source of individual 's personality and academic achievement. In the same vein, Omolewa (2002) affirmed that academic performance of a child could be traced to the kind of friends he keeps and the home

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