Locus of Control as a Correlate of Secondary School Students' Academic Achievement in Imo State, Nigeria

This study investigated the relationship between locus of control and secondary school students’ academic achievement in Imo State. Correlation research design was adopted for this study. Five research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were posed and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population for this study consisted of 8,463 Senior Secondary School (SS2) students. Research sample consisted of 860 (420 male and 440 female) students selected through multi-stage sampling technique. The instrument used for the study was Trice’s Academic Locus of Control Scale (LOS). Results obtained from the study indicated that majority of the students in Imo state have external locus of control. The result also indicated that a good number of the students in Imo state have good achievement in English language and mathematics. Finally, the result revealed significant low positive relationships between secondary school students’ locus of control and their academic achievement in English Language and Mathematics respectively. The study recommended, among others that Counsellors, teachers, parents and other stakeholders should focus more on changing students’ locus of control from external to internal, so that students would be able to accept responsibility for their academic outcomes.