ASSESSMENT OF ACADEMIC CHALLENGES AND COPING STRATEGIES AS EXRESSED BY IN-SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN OFFA, KWARA STATE

Aderinto Sanjo; Martha, A. Pwajok and Idoko Awuya

Abstract

This paper examined academic challenges and coping strategies as expressed by in-school adolescents in Offa Kwara State, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey type of research design. The population of the study comprised 5 public and 5 private senior secondary schools in Offa, Kwara State. The target population was all SSS II. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 5 public and 5 private senior secondary schools. Also, Simple random sampling technique was used to select 20 SSS II from each of 10 senior secondary schools (public and private) making 200 respondents for the study. Two researcher developed instruments were used to collect the necessary data from the respondents. The questionnaires tagged Academic Challenges Questionnaire (ACQ) and Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ). Frequency count and percentage of descriptive statistics was used to analyse the demographic data of the respondents, mean rating and ranking order was used to answer the research questions 1 and 2, t-test of inferential statistics were used to test the generated hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The finding of this study revealed that in-school adolescents are experiencing academic challenges and adopt coping strategies. Finally, the finding of the study showed that there was no significant difference in the academic challenges as expressed by in-school adolescents based on gender. There was no significant difference in the academic challenges as expressed by in-school adolescents based on school type. There was no significant difference in the strategies for coping with academic challenges as expressed by in-school adolescents based on gender. It is therefore recommended that teachers should develop positive relationships with students and stress free classroom activities, which will improve active teaching – learning process and students’ participation in class so that students will benefit maximally, examinations and continuous assessment.