Academic Psychological Capital as Predictor of Academic Achievement among Form Three Students in Kitui County, Kenya
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Date
2023-10
Journal Title
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Publisher
IOSR-JHSS
Abstract
Academic achievement is the main pathway to formal employment all over the world. However, in Kenya poor
academic achievement by students nationally has been of great concern to the teachers, parents and all
educational stakeholders. More specifically, most secondary school students in Kitui County have been
performing below average in national examinations. This poor performance has been attributed to the school
environmental factors, teacher factors and little has been done on individual psychological factors, which may
contribute to the students’ below average performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate how academic
psychological capital predicts academic achievement among form three students in Kitui County. The objective
of this study was to examine the extent to which academic psychological capital predicts academic achievement.
The study was anchored on Broaden-and-build theory by Fredrickson (2004). Explanatory sequential mixed
method design was used. The study targeted 427 form three sub-county secondary school students in Kitui County
in the year 2023.Purposive, stratified, simple random sampling and proportionate sampling was used to select
the schools and the participants. A questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data while interview schedule
was used to collect qualitative data. Finally, pro forma summary was used to collect academic achievement data.
A pilot study involving 30 students was conducted to establish the reliability and validity of the research
instrument. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Quantitative data was
analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and multiple regression while the qualitative
data was analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between
academic psychological capital and academic achievement (r=.65, p< 0.01). From the multiple regression
analysis, it was revealed The best predictor of academic achievement from the sub-scales of academic
psychological capital was resilience (𝛽=.525). The qualitative data was analyzed thematically and the findings
concurred with the quantitative results. As a result, the findings of this study may be used to inform the teachers,
parents and all education stake holders on the importance of academic psychological capital among secondary
school students.
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