This study was designed to ascertain the relationship between family size, family type and scholastic success of Social Studies students in Cross River State. To achieve the purpose of this study, two null hypotheses were formulated to be tested at .05 confidence level. An Ex-post facto design was adopted for the study. One thousand (1000) Social Studies students were selected for the study through proportionate stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques from a population of 19,169 junior secondary three students. Family type was categorized into two (monogamous and polygamous) while Family size was categorized into three (large, medium and small). The only instrument for the study was the Social Studies Academic Achievement Test (SOSAAT). The SOSAAT was paired with the categorized variables for data collection and trial tested using the split-half reliability estimate to establish reliability indexes of 0, 78 and 0.82 while the reliability coefficient for performance test was 0.79 respectively. The reliability test was conducted in one of the schools within the study population but not among the sampled schools for the main study. The data collected were duly coded and analyzed in consistent with the formulated hypotheses using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test-statistics. The results revealed that students’ family size and family type are significantly related to students’ scholastic success in Social Studies. Based on these findings it was concluded that students’ scholastic success is dependent on family size and family type. The work recommended, inter alia, that since small size family has greater positive influence on scholastic success of students in Social Studies, parents should maintain small size families they can adequately nurture and positively impact on. Moreover, parents should endeavour to live together and maintain intact homes so that they can give children the warmth, nurture and encouragement to contribute to the development of the required academic excellence.
Keywords: Family Size, Social Studies, Students, family type, scholastic success
