Family Functioning and Adolescents’ Academic Engagement in Secondary Schools in Ogun State, Nigeria

This study investigated the influence of family functioning on academic engagement of secondary school adolescents in Ogun State, Nigeria.

The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey research design.  A sample of 1,800 senior secondary school students was selected through the multi-stage stratified random sampling technique from an estimated population of 103,981 senior secondary school I and II students in the 2015/2016 academic year. The study adopted two instruments for data collection. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Independent t-test and Multiple Regression analysis.

Findings revealed a significant influence of family functioning on students’ academic engagement. Among the factors of family functioning, problem solving was found to be the most potent contributor to academic engagement, followed by general function. Affective involvement was next and this was followed, though negatively, by affective response. Behavior control was the next potent predictor although negatively too. It was also discovered that communication and roles were not good predictors of students’ academic engagement.

Students’ academic engagement specifically depends on the overall family functioning, and more distinctively on problem solving, affective response, affective involvement and behavior control dimensions of family functioning which will positively influence adolescent students’ academic engagement.