FAMILY DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND SOCIO- EMOTIONAL SKILLS AS PREDICTORS OF SCHOOL READINESS AMONG PRIMARY ONE SCHOOL PUPILS IN SOUTHEASTERN, NIGERIA

Abstract

School readiness, the physical, emotional and cognitive preparedness of a child is a key factor for enrolment into the primary level of education. The importance of physical, emotional and cognitive preparedness of primary one entrants as factors for school readiness have attracted scholarly efforts. However, available evidence has shown that the children enrolled into preprimary school find it difficult to transit to primary school due to low school readiness. Past studies on school readiness focused more on intervention and family size and put little emphasis on Family Demographic Factors (FDF) and pupils' Socio-emotional Skills (SeS). Thus, the study examined FDF (Family Income -FI, Parental Educational Level -PEL, Home Location –HL) and Socio-emotional Skills (Self-Awareness -SeA, Social Awareness-SoA, Relationship Skills-ReS) as predictors of school readiness among primary one pupils in southeastern Nigeria. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System and Erikson’s Social-Emotional Human Development theories provided the scheme, whilst survey strategy of the correlation style was utilised. Simple random sample technique was utilised to pick three (Abia, 320; Anambra’ 416 and Imo, 418) states in southeastern Nigeria. The disproportionate sampling technique was utilised to select four Local Government Areas (LGAs) from each of the selected states making 12 LGAs. Five public primary schools that have been existing for not less than twenty years were purposely selected through the use of purposive sampling from each LGA. Simple random sampling technique was utilised to select one intact class from each school, all having 1200 pupils. Research instruments used were Family Demographic Factors Questionnaire, Pupil’s School Readiness (r=0.94), Pupil’s Socio-emotional Skills (r=0.92) rating scales, Teacher and Research Assistants Training Guides. Analysis of data was conducted with the aid of descriptive statistics, PPMC-PearsonProduct-Moment-Correlation, and linearregression (multiple) at 0.05 significance level. Majority of the pupils (53.0%) were six years old and 53.0% were female. The monthly FI of majority of respondents (65.0%) was between N10,000-N50,000, while HL of 53.0% was urban and 75.0% did not have more than secondary education. Pupils’ school readiness level was high with (65.9%) and socio-emotional skills (65.0%). Positive and significant relationships existed among PEL (r = 0.13), FI (r = 0.11), HL (r = 0.13) and pupils’ school readiness. FDF had a significant composite contribution on pupils’ school readiness (F(3;1195) = 24.65) and accounted for 5.6% of its variance. The PEL (β = 0.18; t = 6.27), HL (β = 0.16; t = 5.68) and FI (β = 0.13; t = 4.50) had significant relative contributions to school readiness. Socio-emotional skills had significant composite contribution on pupils’ school readiness (F(3;1195) = 47.83) and accounted for 10.5% of its variance. Self-awareness (β = 0.21; t = 6.48) and relationship skills (β = 0.16; t = 4.88) had significant relative contributions to school readiness. Family income, parental educational level, home location and self-awareness, social awareness and relationship skills influenced pupils’ school readiness in southeastern Nigeria. Primary one pupil’s teachers should consider the family background in handling issues around readiness.