ABSTRACT

This study was designed to investigate the influence of family size on academic achievements of secondary school students in Ikwuano Local Government of Abia State. A survey research designed was used for the study. Four research questions guided the study. The population of the study was made up of 1800 students and 200 teachers which made up of 2000 population. The sample comprised 320 students and teachers. The sample was drawn from the selected local government Area in Abia State. A 20 item questionnaire was designed using the Likert scale model and validated by the researcher supervisor and two experts in the unit of measurement and evaluation, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. The reliability of the instrument was determined using test-retest method and yielded a coefficient of 0.81. This was administered to a simple randomized sample of three thousand two hundred and twenty students and teachers drawn from a population of two thousand from one local government in the study area. All the research questions were analyzed using mean scores, and cluster mean scores. The results of the analyzed data revealed that the family size influences student's academic achievement, large family with low earning influences the students' nutrition and implications which leads to poor academic achievement. Based on these findings, it was recommended amongst others that parents of students from all families should endeavour to provide study materials for their children to boost academic success.