Abstract

The study investigated the possible Psycho-demographic variables (Gender, Age, Family type, Spiritual intelligence, Emotional intelligence, Creativity, Self efficacy, Motivation and Goal setting) as predictors of School Attendance Behaviour among secondary school students in Osun State, Nigeria. Multistage stratified sampling methods were used in selecting 626 students with age range between 10 and 21 years from JS1-SS3. They responded to ten valid and reliable instruments, namely: School Attendance Behaviour Rating Scale, Students ’Academic Achievement Motivation, Goal Setting Scale, Emotional Intelligence Scale, Creativity Scale, Generalized Self Efficacy Scale and Spiritual Intelligence Questionnaire. Data analysis involved the use of Multiple Regression Analysis to seek for possible predictive capacity of the nine independent variables on School Attendance Behavior. The results indicated positive correlations among variables and the nine independent variables when, taken together, contributed 64.6%, while relative contributions revealed Motivation as the highest contributor with a β of 0.541, followed by Goal setting (B = 0.248), Emotional Intelligence (B = 0.235), Creativity (B = 0.189), Age (B = 0.080), Self efficacy (B = 0.042), Family Type (B = 0.041), Spiritual Intelligence (B = 0.023) and Gender (B = 0.006), respectfully. On the basis of this finding, recommendations were made that parents must constantly motivate their children to go to school, while Guidance Counsellors need to organize group counselling programmes to teach students on benefits of Western education, Goal setting skills, Emotional intelligence, Creativity, Self efficacy and Spiritual intelligence to reduce truancy to the bearest minimum and encourage school attendance behaviour.

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INTRODUCTION

School attendance behaviour is a serious issue and an essential pre-requisite for achievement and overall development of learners (Animasahun, 2008a). It is an effective antidote for the management and reduction of academic success barriers (Animasahun, 2007a). It remains a main facilitator of the National Policy on Education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1998) and the success of Universal Basic Education (UBE) (Adeniran, 1999; Federal Ministry of Education, 1999). School attendance behaviour is therefore the direct opposite of truancy (Stoll, 1990; Fitzgibbon, 1996; Osarenren, 1996; Wisconsin, 2000; Rothman, 2001; Gesinde, 2004; Adeyemi, 2006; Animasahun, 2009). Therefore, this study shall be approached using Stephen Covey (2009) style (an American Socrates who has spent the substantial part of his life, studying, writing, teaching and still investigating the seven major habits of highly effective people, managers, leaders, principals, IT administrators, social justice committees etc.). In his effort to discuss the seven habits of highly effective leaders, Covey (2009) focused attention mainly on seven habits of highly ineffective leaders. So also, this study, in its efforts to discuss school attendance behaviour shall focus mainly on non-school attendance behaviour, popularly known as truancy.

Truancy, a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of Nigeria educational programmes has caused a lot of set backs for children, adolescents and youths in their educational pursuits (Stoll, 1990; Gesinde, 2004; Adeyemi, 2006; Animasahun, 2007b). Simply defined, it is an irregular attendance of school.

Truancy has been conceptualized as unjustified intentional absence from school (Van-Petegem, 1994). Fogelman and Hibbett (1995) opined that any absence from school without an acceptable reason is truancy, whether or not the students’ parents know and approve. Animasahun (2007a) suggested truancy to be an act of staying off school, which is one of the several kinds of antisocial behaviours. To strengthen his point, Baker et al. (2001) stressed that as a risk factor for delinquency, truancy is found to be related to substance abuse, gang activity and involvement in criminal activities.

Animasahun (2005) advanced the study on poor school attendance behaviour known as truancy by X-raying their major characteristics such as laziness, excessive sleeping at home, sluggishness, lack of interest in morning duties, non-challant attitude to issues, rudeness, cunning, lack interest in academics, never study at home, see no reason for study, always in the company of hoodlums, always speaking foul language, having no complete uniforms, always wearing slippers and other wears not acceptable in school, having extravagant and strange hairdo, dirty, lacking required text books, having no school bags but carry only one or two exercise books by hand or in uniform pockets, their female counterparts carry fashion bags meant for one or two notebooks and spare clothes as well as cosmetics, walking majestically to school after 8.00 am, having special jungles to school, rarely found at the assembly grounds, armed with cassettes to watch or listen to at any available time, consuming alcohol and smoking cigarettes or India hemp for fun, moving in gangs etc.

Animasahun (2007a) found that such students are always loaded with academic success barriers than their counterparts who attend school regularly. The barriers, apart from truancy behaviour include: poor study habits, carrer-crisis, examination malpractices, drug abuse, cultism behaviour, conduct disorder, indecent dressing, sexual promiscuity, pornographic behaviour, violent behaviour, negative peer influence, negative self component and poor time management.

Truancy is a delinquent and anti-social behaviour, therefore, this behaviour can be explained from the perspectives of certain theories of delinquency, namely: Social Control, Anomie and Urban sub-culture theories. The social control theory postulated that emotional attachment to meaningful persons directs individual behaviour and also the more investments in conventional goals in life and careers a student has, the stronger a rational consideration of advantages and disadvantages of deviant behaviour. This indicates that truancy is influenced by certain significant others around the child (Sampson and Lamb, 1993; Sturzbecher, 2001; Wagner, 2002). However, Hirsch (1969) submitted that participation in conventional activities reduces the available time and the opportunity to become delinquent. Anomie theory, which stresses strain as major cause of delinquency stated that cultural structure determines the goals of action however, the social position of individuals within the social structure particularly influences the chances to have access to the legitimate means, but since the lower class finds it difficult to achieve culturally defined goals easily, they undergo a stronger social pressure to find non-institutionalized and, most often, deviant ways to achieve those goals. This means that truancy is influenced by poverty and struggle to make it (Opp, 1974; Lamnek, 1985; Holtappels et al., 1997). Urban Subculture theory, however, submitted that the effect of urban environment leads to juvenile delinquency. This means that truancy results from efforts to get something else done to cushion the effect of urban environment, (Shoe-maker, 2000).

The above theories deal with the causes of truancy. Other causes collated from literature include: changing school values, poverty, ignorance, peer influence, unemployment, poor remuneration for educated persons, capacity for illiterate men to have educated spouse, poor learning conditions, capacity to make petty cash to augment family income, finding trading more satisfying than schooling (Nwagwu, 1999); lack of readiness to learn, lack of motivation, the fear of unknown, poor parenting, misplaced priority, bad role models, over indulgence, excessive domesticwork, spiritual factors, (Animasahun, 2005); Psychiatric disturbance, negative attitude towards education (Gesinde, 2004); being ill-equipped to tackle normal pressure of school (Gabb, 1997); lack of adjustment to school life (Aramide, 1998); love of immediate earnings from employment (Ediger, 1987); incompatible age (Lotz and Lee, 1999), Lack of willingness to learn (Wise, 1934); lack of self esteem and social skills confidence, lack of self management skills, lack of academic ability (Kinder et al., 1995; Uwakwe, 1998); inadequacies in the home (Garry, 2001), unfavorable home circumstances (Osarenren, 1996); parental carefree attitude (Kilpatrick 1996; Stickney and Mitenberger, 1998) unmet educational needs, placement problems, hostile atmosphere of the school teachers’ professional misconduct (Harte, 1995; Oloko, 1996); teachers’ discriminative contribute and harsh behaviour, teachers’ absenteeism as well as general indiscipline of the society (Osarenren, 1996). Rothman (2001) and Oyesola (2002), however, emphasized poor school climate. Furthermore, other factors that have been found to affect truancy are: personality aspects (Carlen et al., 1992); anxiety and fear, stress, rebelliousness, poor social skills (Edward and Malcon, 2001); low self esteem (Reids, 2002); anti-social behaviour (Sue et al., 1997); self efficacy (Bandura, 1997); aggressive behaviour (Bandura, 1997); scholastic failure (Gray and Jesson, 1990); learning problems (Reids, 2002); cognitive factor i.e., poor learning style (Riding and Read, 1996; Rayner and Riding, 1996; Egger et al., 2003) and poor health arising from initially legitimate reasons (Nodoba, 2003).

The effects of truancy are also enormous. Literature recorded: Educational wastage and poor human power development (Rumberger, 1987; Nwagwu, 1999); production of hoodlums, social misfit, antisocial individual and eventual criminals (Animasahun, 2005); Non-productive citizens (Eric Clearinghouse, 1991) and gateway to crime (Adeyemi, 2006).

However, when one considers the great importance of school attendance behaviour, a truant would be woefully pitied. Animasahun (2003) gathered the following: Acquisition of knowledge that makes one different from animals, broadened outlook, properly connected to the source of power for survival in the chaotic world, pointer to a secured future, equipped with ability to challenge challenges of life, liberation from the bondage of ignorance, discovery of hidden talents and individuals’ uniqueness, groomed to be a better citizen, key to gate of wide opportunites, benefiting maximally from a free and democratic society, empowerment to contribute substantially to the development of the egalitarian society, sufficiently equipped to to the building and sustenance of a great and dynamic economy, licensed to enjoy a land of bright and full opportunities for all citizens, becoming difficult to be cheated, prevention from certain dangers and thereby prolonging life, paving way for growth that prevents groaning, ticket for responsibility, which is a sign of greatness and having good results that remove insults.

Emmanuel (2007) commented that their location will bring them good allocation because they are well placed. According to him, your position determines your portion and your location determines your allocation. He, who is wrongly placed will miss good allocation. Definitely, since a truant is not found where, he is supposed to be at a particular time, he would miss a lot.

Animasahun (2008a, b) stressed the importance of school attendance as a determinant of attitude to work later in life, when the young child gets employment. He therefore concluded that school attendance behaviour should be taught to students. Harte (1995) emphasised that parental effectiveness and involvement would go a long way in fostering school attendance behaviour (Table 1).

Osun State is a typical state in Nigeria, where truancy rate is on the increase and school attendance behaviour is highly jeopardized. Little wonder therefore, when the state has consistently been having poor results in final Senior Secondary School Examinations (SSCE) conducted by WAEC. In fact, the name of the state ranked high among the 19 states, whose percentage performance dropped severely in 2007. The statistics of performance on State basis of the candidates that obtained a minimum of five credits (including English Language and Mathematics) in May/June WASSCE (2005-2007) shows for Osun State.

 

Table 1:	May/June WASSCE (2005-2007) total percentage for Osun State
WAEC

 

The percentages show those who could proceed conveniently to tertiary institutions. The fate of about 90% students who crash out every year is dicey. No wonder many of the young school leavers become political thugs, prostitutes or hardened criminals. The failure and consequent antisocial behaviours have been traced to non-school attendance behaviour among other factors (Animasahun, 2008a, b).

The government in Osun State has put in place some strategies to curb truancy but the outcome is yet to be fruitful. The state instituted the Disciplinary corps, whereby 620 members of the corps are spread over 600 Secondary Schools in the State to maintain order and discipline, curb truancy, reduce lateness, prevent disobedience and block sneaking out of schools. The State is distributed into six zones for effective management. Prince Sola Oyedeji is the current State Commandant of the corps. The institution of the corps was borne out of the strategy adopted during the military regime, when General Olusegun Obasanjo was the head of state and commander in Chief of the Armed forces. Soldiers were posted to secondary schools to maintain discipline and curb truancy. The effort yielded positive result then, but now, it is no longer really fashionable.

The question now is why is it that some students attend school regularly, while others choose to be truant? It has been discovered by psychologists that certain psychodemographic factors could be responsible. These include; gender, age, family type, spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence, creativity, self efficacy, motivation and goal setting. The first three are the demographic factors, while the last six are the psychological factors. Each of them would be briefly discussed.

Gender and school attendance behaviour: Evidence abound that no significant difference exists between school attendance behaviour of males and females. Both play truacy almost equally (Gray and Jesson, 1990; Stoll, 1993; Whitney, 1998; Smith, 1996). However, while (Reids, 2002); found that girls play truancy more than boys in their first three years in Secondary schools, Gesinde (2004) submitted that male at any level of education play truancy more than girls.

Age and school attendance behaviour: In their investigation, Rayner and Riding (1996) found that absentiseem increases as a student progresses through high school, which means Senior Secondary Students, possibly between ages 14-21, play truancy more than their junior counterpart 10-13 years. In the same manner, Animasahun (2005) reported that older students play truancy more than their younger counterparts. However, Mashinane (1997) found that there are more truants in Grade 11 than Grade 10. Nevertheless, both grades are adolescents. Suffice to say that older adolescents play truancy more than their younger counterparts.

Family type and school attendance behaviour: Gray and Jesson (1990), reported that students from single parents family have poorer attendance rate than those from the more traditional family. However, Deci et al. (1991) found no significant difference in the school attendance behaviour of children among monogamous and polygamous families.

Spiritual intelligence: According to Zohar and Marshal (2000) spiritual intelligence refers to the development of the longing and capacity for meaning, vision and value, which facilitates a dialogue between reason and emotion, between mind and body and which enables us to integrate the interpersonal and intrapersonal to transcend the gap between self and others. In other words, it enhances the reasoning capacity before an action is taken and consequently such actions are positively oriented. Wigglesworth (2002) further conceptualise spiritual intelligence to be the ability to behave with compassion and wisdom, while maintaining inner and outer peace (equanimity) regardless of the circumstance. Spiritual intelligence is therefore, a necessary personal endowment, which enables one to maintain both inner and outer peace and display love regardless of the circumstances, whether stress or acute conflict. It could therefore, be a necessary ingredient of school attendance behaviour.

Emotional intelligence: Emotional Intelligence has been conceptualized as a set of acquired skills and competencies that predicts positive outcomes at home with one’s family, in school and at work (Akinboye, 2003). In other words, it refers to the basic positive life skills (Animasahun, 2008a); which include school attendance behaviour. It has its root in the concept of social intelligence, first identified by Thorndike (1920). He defined social intelligence as the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls to act wisely in human relations. The term emotional intelligence was however coined by Salovey and Mayer (1990). They explained that emotional intelligence is a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own feelings and emotions as well as those of others, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide ones thinking and actions (Mayer and Salovey, 1993). People who possess these are healthier, less depressed and more productive at work and have better relationships (Animasahun, 2007b). Ciarrochi et al. (2000) found that emotional intelligence correlated positively with such variables as empathy, verbal intelligence, extroversion, openness to feeling, self esteem and life satisfaction. Bohensky (2002), found emotionally intelligent individuals to be highly adaptable and able to cope with pressures and generally experience less stress. Animasahun (2008a) found it to be strong in enhancing the positive life skills of individuals. Therefore, it is believed to be a factor in school attendance behaviour.

Creativity: Creativity is generally concerned with bringing about new ideas to solve specific life problems (De Bono, 1971; Akinboye, 2001; Animasahun, 2002). Creativity is loaded with diverse techniques that could be adopted to solve specific problems. One of such is the six Thinking Hats developed by De Bono (1985) to liberate an individual from the bondage of muddled thinking that always lead to irrational decisions and consequent unprofitable actions. For instance, the decision to boycott school as a result of any reason is definitely a wrong one emanating from poor thinking. However, knowledge of the six Thinking Hats enable an individual to deliberately choose his mode of thinking after a critical assessment of such behaviour. Quite a number of researchers have advocated for the adoption of creativity techniques for effective thinking leading to sound decision-making and productive actions. These include: Osborn (1963), De Bono (1985, 2006), Akinboye (2000), Animasahun (2002), Hammed and Ayantunji (2002), Owodunni (2002) and Ortese (2005). Specifically, Animasahun (2008a) found the six Thinking Hats creativity technique to be significantly effective in eradicating truancy. It is therefore, believed that creativity is a strong factor in school attendance behaviour.

Self efficacy: Self-efficacy, also called perceived ability, refers to the confidence people have in their abilities for success in a given task (Bandura, 1997). He, who believes that he possesses the ability to successfully perfom a task would easily attempt it, whereas such task will be avoided if it is perceived to be too difficult (Bandura, 1986, 1997). Hence, inefficacious individuals usually avoid challenging tasks, when they do attempt them, they give up more easily than individuals with high efficacy. This is the situation with truants. Failure in examinations is one of those factors responsible for truancy, so when they fail, they attribute the poor performance to a lack of ability and tend to loose faith in their capabilities. However, four factors determine self efficacy namely: enactive mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and physiological and emotional states (Bandura, 1986, 1997). All these are likely to aid school attendance behaviour of a child. Bandura (1997) has found that self efficacy is one of the influences on both general academic achievement and science achievement. It is therefore, believed that it would also, play a significant role in school attendance behaviour.

Motivation: Anderman and Young (1994) defined motivation as the process by which behaviour is energized, directed and sustained in organizational settings. It is often described as the drive to action. It is a universal concept that explains the why of behaviour. It is derived from the Latin word movere, which means to move. It may be intrinsic as when, the child can have a feeling of satisfaction with what he is doing and he is strongly encouraged to stick to it for personal satisfaction and self-fulfillment. It could, on the other hand, be extrinsic as could be seen in the child, who studies hard because of the reward of earning good salary later in life. Researchers claimed that students who see reasons, why they need to do certain things (intrinsic motivation) outshine their counterparts who are extrinsically motivated (Anderman and Young, 1994; Valle et al., 2001). The various theories of motivation such as social identity, self presentation, self efficacy, expectancy-values, goal and self determination theory (Bandura, 1986; Deci et al., 1991) have submitted that human beings have a fundamental need to maintain or enhance their phenomenal self by being motivated to behave in ways that are consistent with existing self perceptions. Therefore, motivated individuals perform a task better than others (Ogundokun, 2006; Akpuogwu, 2007; Adeyemi, 2009). In the same vein, Adeyemi (2009) added that school attendance behaviour and motivation are significantly positively correlated.

Goal setting: A goal can be taken to mean the end toward, which effort is directed, while goal setting is a plan of action for accomplishing the desired result (Ajufo, 2003). Heller (2001) conceptualized goal as an end towards, which specific effort is directed and defined goal setting as a right-brain function, which uses imagination, creativity, conscience and inspiration, which focuses primarily on results rather than activity. Locke and Latham (1988), a leading authority on goal setting and his colleague defined a goal as what an individual is trying to accomplish, it is the object or aim of an action. Therefore, regardless of the nature of their specific achievements, successful people tend to have one thing in common, their lives are goal oriented. Thus, goal settings are immediate regulators of human actions. By knowing precisely what one wants to achieve, what one should concentrate on and improve upon through goal setting, then one is endowed with a sense of direction, which enables one to avoid what is merely a distraction. It is strongly believed that this might be a predictor of school attendance behaviour.

Since, truancy rate in Osun State is on the high side and the identified factors have been discovered to aid school attendance behaviour, it is therefore imperative that these factors are tested on the regular students and recommend the potent ones as the real factors responsible for school attendance behaviour.

Purpose of study: The purpose of this study therefore, was to investigate the extent to which gender, age, family type, spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence, creativity, self efficacy, motivation and goal setting (psychodemographic variables) would predict school attendance behaviour among Secondary School Students in Osun State, Nigeria.

Research questions:

•	Is there any relationship between the psychodemographic variables and school attendance behaviour?

•	What is the joint effect of the psychodemographic variables on school attendance behaviour?

•	What are the relative effects of the psychod-emographic variables on school attendance behaviour?

Research design: The study adopted survey research design using the expo-facto type. The researcher was interested in knowing the predictive effect of the psychodemographic variables on school attendance behaviour without necessarily manipulating the independent variables.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Participants: The population of the study comprised all regular students in the various secondary schools in Osun State. The State is divided into nine Federal Constituency.

Therefore, a local government was randomly selected from each of the constituencies on simple balloting. Five secondary schools were selected from each local government, still on simple balloting, while seventy regular students comprising male and female in public and private secondary schools spread over Junior and Senior levels were randomly selected, also based on simple balloting. This means that a total sample of 630 students with age range between 10 and 21 years participated in the study. However, only 380 males (60.7% and 246 females (38.1%) i.e., a total of 626 students completed and submitted the questionnaires.

Instrumentation: Seven major instruments were used to collect data from the respondents. They include:

•	School Attendance Behavior Rating Scale (SABRS). This was developed and validated by the researcher. It is a 20 item test measuring the school attendance behaviour of students. The items were developed on 5 point Likert format. Such items include

•	I am one of the most punctual students in my school

•	I cannot miss any lesson in my school

•	Truancy is bad; I can’t have a truant as friend

•	A pilot study carried out with the instrument yielded a Crombach α of 0.92 and the coefficient of reliability r = 0.87

•

Spiritual Intelligence Questionnaire (SIQ) (Zohar and Marshall, 2000). It has 31 items designed with five-point response format ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree) to assess student’ spiritual intelligence endowment. A Crombach α of 0.74 was found for its internal consistency and a test-retest reliability coefficient r = 0.72

•

Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) (Schuttle et al., 1998). It has 33 items tapping the appraisal and expression of emotion in self and others as well as utilization of emotions in solving problems, using a five point scale ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). The scale has demonstrated high internal consistency with Crombach alpha (α) = 0.81-0.90 and a 2 week test-retest reliability coefficient r = 0.78

•

Creativity Scale (CS) Animasahun (2007a, b). It is the sixth scale in his Success Potential Battery. It has 33 items developed on 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). It has a Crombach alpha (α) = 0.9193 and the reliability coefficient using Guttman split half (r) = 0.8580.

•	The Generalized self-efficacy scale (Schwarzer and Jerusalem, 1995). It consists of 10 items measuring individual’s general self-efficacy. It has a reliability coefficient of 0.65-0.91

•

Students’ Academic Achievement Motivation (Aremu and Hammed, 2002). It is the 2nd inventory in Ibadan Multi-dynamic inventories of Achievement Motivation. It consists of 20 items, developed on 5 point Likert scale and revalidated by the researcher, whereby the Crombach (α) = 0.76 and the reliability coefficient using Guttman split half r = 0.82

•	Goal Setting Rating Scale (Amusan, 2003). It has 11 items developed on 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). The Crombach alpha (α) is 0.73 and the internal consistency was 0.71

Procedure: The seven instruments were packaged together as a questionnaire with 8 sections, where section A seeks demographic information, section B is on school Attendance Behaviour Rating Scale, section C focuses on Spiritual intelligence Questionnaire, section D captures Emotional Intelligence Scale, Section E is on Creativity scale, section F accommoates the Generalized self efficacy scale, section G is on Students’ Academic Achievement Motivation, while section H centers on Goal setting Rating Scale. These were administered on the participants by the researcher with permission from various school principals and with the assistance of their Guidance Counsellors. The exercise lasted for 3 weeks.

Data analysis: The collected data were analysed with multiple regression analysis to find out the joint and relative contributions of the independent variables to the prediction of the criterion variable, as well as the pattern of relationship that exist between the independent and dependent variables and among the independent variables.

RESULTS

The first research question purported to find out if there are relationships among the independent variables and the dependent variable. The result is shown in Table 2.

The Table 2 shows, the mean and standard deviation for all the variables and also, shows that all the independent variables are positively correlated with the dependent variable (School attendance behaviour). Also, there are significant positive relationships among the entire variables.

The second research question seeks to find the joint contribution of all the independent variables to the criterion variable. The result is shown in Table 3.

The result shows that all the nine independent variables jointly yielded a coefficient of multiple regression (R) = 0.807 and a multiple correlation square (R²) = 0.651 and finally, an adjusted multiple correlation square (Adj R²) = 0.646, which means that the nine independent variables jointly contribute a total of 64.6% to the total variance of the criterion variable. The Analysis of variance also shows, a significant relationship of the independent variables to the dependent variable (F(9,616) = 127.78; p<0.05).

 

Table 2:	Descriptive statistics and matrix table showing the pattern of relationship among the variables

 

Table 3:	Multiple Regression table showing the joint contribution of independent variables to school attendance behaviour
Multiple R = 0.807, Multiple R2 = 0.651, Multiple R2 (Adjusted) = 0.646, SEEstimate = 7.39, ANOVA

Table 4:	Relative contributions of the independent variables to the prediction of school attendance behaviour

The third research question focuses on the relative contributions of the independent variables to the outcome measure. The result is presented in Table 4.

The result shows that motivation contributed the highest with a β weight of 0.541, while gender has the lowest contribution with a β weight of 0.006. Arranged in the order of magnitude, the result is as follows: motivation (β = 0.541, t = 11.117; p<0.05); Goal setting (β = 0.248, t = 6.593; p<0.05); Emotional Intelligence (β = 0.235, t = 6.651; p<0.05); Creativity (β = 0.189, t = 4.370; p<0.05); Age (β = 0.080, t = 3.019; p<0.05); Self Efficacy (β = 0.042, t = 0.910; p>0.05); Family Type (β = 0.041, t = 1.677; p>0.05); Spiritual Intelligence (β = 0.023, t = 0.822; p>0.05) and finally, Gender (β = 0.006, t = 0.235; p>0.05). This shows that all independent variables contributed significantly to the criterion measure (school attendance behaviour), no matter how small.

DISCUSSION

The results obtained in Table 2 revealed that gender, age, family type, spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence, creativity, self efficacy, motivation and goal setting have positive correlation with the dependent variable (school attendance behaviour). The Pearson correlation results embedded in the Multiple Regression Analysis ranged from r = 0.028-.774. Also, significant positive relationships exist among the nine independent variables. This further strengthens what a lot of researchers such as (Animasahun, 2007a, b, 2008a, b; Adeyemi, 2009; Sanders, 1997; Heller, 2001) have earlier stressed.

The extent of the effect of the independent variables in predicting school attendance behaviour is reflected in the values of coefficient of multiple regression (R = 0.807), multiple R² (0.651) and in multiple R² adjusted (0.646) as shown in Table 3. It could therefore, be inferred that 64.69% of the total variance in school attendance behaviour is accounted for by the combination of gender, age, family type, spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence, creativity, self-efficacy, motivation and goal setting. Also, the F-ratio value of 127.78, which is significant at 0.05 further attested to the fact that the predictive capacity of the independent variables was not as a result of any chance factor. The finding further corroborates the earlier findings of (Bandura, 1997; Heller, 2001; Animasahun, 2007, 2008).

The relative contributions of the independent variables to school attendance behaviour as revealed in Table 4 shows that motivation is the most potent predictor of school attendance behaviour. It has a β weight of 0.541 and t-ratio of 11.117, followed by goal setting, emotional intelligence, creativity, age, self efficacy, family type, spiritual intelligence and gender in that order. The various t-ratio however revealed that while, the following variables: motivation, goal setting, emotional intelligence, creativity and age contributed significantly to the prediction of school attendance behaviour, the contributions of self efficacy, family type, spiritual intelligence and gender are not significant.

The fact that motivation is the greatest contributor to school attendance behaviour cannot be overemphasized. The result further strengthens the earlier submissions of Anderman and Young (1994), Valle et al. (2001), Ogundokun (2006), Akpuogwu (2007) and Adeyemi (2009). Also, the significant contribution of goal setting to school attendance behaviour upholds the findings of (Heller, 2001). The significant contribution of emotional intelligence in this study buttresses the submissions of Mayer and Salovey (1993); Ciarrochi et al. (2000); Bohensky (2002) and Animasahun (2007a, b) that emotional intelligence is an important factor in overall life success. The revelation that creativity also contributed significantly to the prediction of school attendance behaviour further enhances the discoveries of De Bono (1985, 2006), Akinboye (2000), Animasahun (2002, 2008a, b), Hammed and Ayantunji (2002), Owodunni (2002) and Ortese (2005) who have concluded that creativity skills enhance positive behaviour towards positive life skills. Age has also been found to be a significant contributor to school attendance behaviour. This lend credence to the work of Rayner and Riding (1996) that school attendance behaviour decreases as students progress through high school, which means, truancy is more rampant among the senior secondary school students who are automatically in adolescence age.

The insignificant contribution of self efficacy to school attendance behavior does not really mean that self efficacy is not important, the result only indicates that every category of students, i.e., those who are self-efficacious as well as those who are not, play truancy. No wonder the state government instituted the Disciplinary Corps to curb the rampant situation of truancy and to encourage, school attendance behaviour. The result on family type goes the same way. Students from whichever kind of family play truancy. Spiritual intelligence is also not significant in this situation. Levels of spiritual intelligence does not determine whether, one would be attending school regularly or playing truancy. Likewise gender, both sexes are involved in truancy; so, gender does not determine school attendance behaviour. Therefore, while the current findings of insignificant contributions of self efficacy, family type, spiritual, intelligence and gender are new discoveries, the results are in total support of the earlier findings of Deci et al. (1991) that no significant difference exist in the school attendance behaviour of children from monogamous and polygamous families, as well as Gray and Jesson (1990), Stoll (1993), Whitney (1998) and Smith (1996) who found no significant difference in the school attendance behaviours between males and females.

Implication of findings: The result of this study has opened the eyes to certain issues concerning the life of young students to enhance their school attendance behaviour and overall academic success. Motivation is a strong factor that enhances desirable behaviours. Both the young and old need motivation to enhance performance. Parents, teachers and everybody concerned with the life of the young ones must take note of this. Students should be motivated by parents to go to school while, enabling environment must be provided in school to get them interested. School counselors can also organize group counselling to discuss the benefits of Western Education. All these are motivational strategies that would go a long way to enhance the school attendance beahviour of our students.

The importance of goal setting skill has been well exemplified in the study. It indicates that students who set goals attend school better. Really, a goalless person is a dangerous person because he has no purpose, no focus and could easily be distracted to commit crime. In fact, distraction is the greatest enemy of distinction. Also, emotional intelligence is a key factor in school attendance behaviour because the emotionally intelligent student would always consider the consequences of his behaviour. In like manner, creativity has been found to be a strong factor in school attendance behaviour. This is a good revelation to buttress the fact that a creative person can never be idle, he would be busy doing something good all the time. Therefore, conscious teaching of goal setting, emotional intelligence and creativity skills would go a long way in inculcating school attendance behaviour in the secondary school students.

CONCLUSION

This study has revealed the importance of motivation, goal setting emotional intelligence, creativity and age as major determinants of school attendance behaviour of secondary school students. It is clearly evident also that though the contributions of self efficacy, family type, spiritual intelligence and gender are not significant, yet the little that each of them contributed cannot be underestimated as they all have positive relatioships with school attendance behaviour.

How to cite this article:

R.A. Animasahun. Psychodemographic Predictors of School Attendance Behaviour among Secondary School Students in Osun State, Nigeria.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36478/sscience.2009.662.672
URL: https://www.makhillpublications.co/view-article/1818-5800/sscience.2009.662.672