Psychosocial Predictors of Secondary School Students’ Attitude Towards Cheating in Examination in Emuoha Local Government Area, Rivers State (Published)
The study investigated Psychosocial Predictors of Secondary School Students’ Attitude Towards Cheating In Examination In Emuoha Local Government Area, Rivers State. Five research questions and five corresponding hypotheses were formulated for the study. Correlational and descriptive research design was used for the study. The population of the study consisted of all the senior secondary school students in the 20 public schools in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. A sample of 125 senior secondary school II students was drawn for the study using the multi-stage sampling technique. The instruments used for data collection in this study were the Students’ Attitude Cheating Scale (SACS) and the Psychosocial Predictors Scale (PPS). The validity of both instruments was done using experts’ assessment while their reliability was determined through Cronbach Alpha method. The reliability coefficient of 0.78 was realized for Students’ Attitude Cheating Scale (SACS) and 0.82 was realized for Psychosocial Predictors Scale (PPS) respectively. Analysis of the instruments was done using simple regression as well as t-test. Finding showed that achievement motivation (p=0.001<0.05) and self-efficacy (p= 0.000<0.05) all had significant relationship with secondary school student’s attitude towards cheating. On the contrary, there was insignificant differences (p= 0.22>0.05) between the attitude of male and female students. Based on this, it was recommended among others that school authorities should encourage the student to get involved in educational and social clubs which will help them academically and morally.
Keywords: Achievement, Gender, Motivation, Self-Efficacy, cheating
Parenting Styles as Correlates of Students’ Attitude towards Examination Malpractices in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State: Implications for Counselling (Published)
Parenting styles refers to practices adopted by parents in rearing their children. A good parenting style is needed to develop in a child interpersonal relationship, capacity to take initiatives, self-reliance, motivation and to conform to societal acceptable code of conduct. Bad parenting style is counterproductive and may as well get children involved in antisocial behaviours including examination malpractices. This work is a correlational study intended to determine the relationship between parenting styles and students’ attitude towards examination malpractices. Three research questions and three hypotheses were designed to guide the study. The instruments for data collection were Students’ Attitude to Examination Malpractices Scale and Parenting Style Scale. These instruments were vetted by three experts in Educational Psychology. The reliability coefficient of Attitude to Examination Malpractices Scale measured through test-retest method and Pearson product moment correlation technique was 0.86. The reliability indices of sections of Parenting Style Scale established through Cronbach Alpha technique were 0.68, 0.81, 0.73 and 0.84 for sections A, B, C and D respectively. It was found that though, majority of the students showed negative attitude towards examination malpractices, a sizeable percentage of them showed positive attitude towards the malaise. Authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and neglectful parenting styles had a significant joint relationship with students’ attitude towards examination malpractices. Authoritative, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles each had individual negative relationship with students’ attitude towards examination malpractices while neglectful parenting style had a positive relationship with students’ attitude towards examination malpractices. Based on these findings, it is imperative for the counsellors to assist prospective couples through premarital counselling or marital counselling to adopt good parenting styles especially authoritative parenting style in nurturing their children. Appreciable number of counsellors should be employed by the government of Rivers State and sent to secondary schools to help maladjusted students acquire good value re-orientation that will enable them distinguish what is good from what is bad with a view to avoiding negative tendencies including examination malpractices.
Keywords: Authoritarian, Authoritative, Corruption, Examination, Fraud, Test, antisocial behaviour, cheating, malpractices, neglectful parenting styles, permissive