Relationships among School Adjustment, Dispositional Optimism and Academic Achievement between Male and female Undergraduate Students in North West Zone, Nigeria

Relationships among School Adjustment, Dispositional Optimism and Academic Achievement between Male and female Undergraduate Students in North West Zone, Nigeria

¹Babangida Iro, ²Khadija Mahmoud; ³Aisha I. Mohammed & ⁴Musa Balarabe

¹Learner Support Services, National Open University of Nigeria, Kaduna Study Centre

^2,3&4Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

Email: Irobabangida@yahoo.com; biro@noun.edu.ng; addadija@yahoo.com; Aishindo120@gmail.com; mbalarabe@gmail.com

Corresponding Author:Babangida Iro

ABSTRACT

This research assessed the gender influence among school adjustment, dispositional optimism and academic achievement of undergraduate students in North West Zone, Nigeria. The design used for this study was triangulation research design, which is a combination of correlation survey and ex-post facto. The population of the study consisted of 14,756 undergraduate students Out of which 378 subjects were sampled guided by Krejcie & Morgan, (1970) sampling procedure, consisting both male and female students. The research questions were answered using descriptive statistics of means and standard deviation respectively. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMr) was used and tested hypotheses 1 – 3. Moreover, independent t-test was used and analysed the differences in hypotheses 4 and 5. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) 22.0 was used and hypotheses formulated were tested using 0.05 level of significance. The finding/conclusion showed that, there were no gender influence among school adjustment, dispositional optimism and academic achievement. The results further revealed that, there were no differences in school adjustment and dispositional optimism between male and female students. The study recommended that, parents, teachers, school administrators, private agencies and government at large, should help students to increase school adjustment and develop dispositional optimism equally, irrespective of male or female students. This could be achieved through training, counseling, teaching, seminars, journals, workshops and educational policies.

Keywords: School Adjustment, Dispositional Optimism and Academic Achievement