Parental Support and Motivation towards Learning among Students in Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State

This study investigated the influence of parental support on students’ motivation towardslearning among Senior Secondary School 2 (SSS2) students in Ibadan North Local GovernmentArea, Oyo State, Nigeria. The study was guided by three research questions, two hypotheses,and the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler Model of Parental Involvement Process guided thestudy. A descriptive survey design was employed. The study population comprised 1,343 SSS2students across the 42 public secondary schools in the local government area. Usingdisproportionate-to-size sampling technique, ten schools were selected and 400 students (40per school) were sampled for the study. A self-constructed questionnaire titled: “ParentalSupport and Motivation towards Learning among Students Questionnaire” (PSMLSQ)” wasused to collect data. The questionnaire was subjected to face and content validity anddemonstrated high reliability, with a Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of r = .858. This reliabilityvalue was considered adequate for the study. Data collected were analysed using descriptiveand inferential statistics. Results showed that students are sometimes motivated towardslearning (x₁ = 2.302) and there was a good relationship between parental emotional supportand students’ motivation towards learning (x₁ = 2.676). However, the relationship betweenparental instrumental support and students’ motivation towards learning was poor (x₁ =2.676). Results also showed a positive significant relationship between parental emotionalsupport and students’ motivation towards learning (r = .359, P< 0.05); but a negative significantrelationship between parental instrumental support and students’ motivation towards learning(r = -.323, P< 0.05). It was concluded that there is a positive significant impact of parentalemotional support but negative impact of parental instrumental support on motivation towardslearning among the students. It was recommended that parents should provide more warmth,care, empathy, guidance and basic resources to boost their children’s motivation towardslearning both at home and school.