Moderating Effects of Socio-Economic Status and Resilience On Academic Self-Efficacy of In-School Adolescents from Father-Absent Families in Ekiti State

This study examined the moderating effect of parental socio-economic status and resilience on academic self-efficacy of in-school adolescents from father-absent families in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Pretest-posttest control group quasi- experimental design of 3x3x3 factorial matrix was adopted for this study. Simple random technique was used to select one Local Government Area (LGA) from each of the three senatorial districts in Ekiti State, while one Senior Secondary School (SSS) was randomly selected from each LGA. The Father-Absence Involvement Screening Scale was used to select 166 senior school I and II students across the three schools. Participants were randomly assigned to Cognitive Restructuring (CR-57), Problem-Solving (PST-59) and control (50) groups. Treatment lasted 10 weeks. Instruments used were Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being (α = 0.84), and Resilience (α = 0.83) scales, and Parental Socioeconomic Status Questionnaire (α = 0.73). Data were subjected Analysis of covariance and Multiple classification analysis at 0.05 level of significance. There was no significant main effect of parental socioeconomic status academic on self –efficacy (F _(2,140) = .549, p >.5, = .008) of in-school adolescents from father-absent families. There was no significant main effect of resilience on academic self-efficacy (F _{(2, 140)} = .069, p > .05, = .001) There was no significant interaction effect of treatment and socio-economic status on academic self-efficacy (F _{(4, 140)} = .675, p > .05, = .019).  There was no significant interaction effect of treatment and resilience on academic self-efficacy (F _{(4, 140)} = .252, p > .05, = .007) of in-school adolescents from father-absent families. Parental socio-economic status and resilience has no effect on academic self-efficacy of in-school adolescents and does not moderate the effect of treatment in enhancing academic self-efficacy. It is recommended that school counsellors and management should organise academic seminars and workshop for parents and students on ways to facilitate academic self-efficacy.

Keywords:   Father-absent families, Academic self-efficacy, In-school adolescents, Parental socio-economic status, Resilience,