Influence of adolescence developmental changes on academic performance of students in public secondary schools in Nakuru Municipality, Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Adolescence has for a long time been considered a period when the individual is exposed to heightened risk. Harlock (2006), suggests that our understanding of adolescent behavior, should move beyond isolated emotional and physical studies into a perspective that brings more understanding to the human perception. The academic performance of adolescent students in Kenya has been deteriorating. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether adolescence developmental changes (emotions, social behaviour and physical growth) influence the student’s academic performance in public secondary schools of Nakuru municipality. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design. Stratified random sampling method was used, where form three students in 4 schools formed the strata and a sample of 375 students were randomly selected. Fifty one (51) teacher counsellors were also purposively selected for this study. A 25-item survey instrument was used where the students were asked to rate each item on a strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) Likert scale. In order to ascertain the instrument content validity, each item in the questionnaires and interview schedules was discussed with the lecturers and supervisors. The consistency of the questionnaires and interview schedules was piloted tested in Molo in Nakuru County. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). The findings of the study revealed that the academic performance of the secondary students in the Nakuru municipality averaged 7.8 (on a scale of 1 to 12). The majority of the students (77.1 %) were performing below the average score. The male students had significant (p ≤ 0.05) higher mean scores than the female students. It was further demonstrated that academic performance of adolescent students was significantly (p≤ 0.05) influenced negatively by their emotional behaviour (β= -0.776), social behaviour (β= -0.661) and physical growth (β=-0.156). The study concluded that academic performance was negatively influenced by emotional, social behaviour, and physical changes during the adolescent development stage. It is recommended that student counselling services during the adolescent stage is important to minimize the negative impact on their academic performance. It is anticipated that the study may help teacher counsellors, school administrators and policy makers in the Ministry of Education Science and Technology improve students’ academic performance develop guidance and counselling programmes through which students may be helped to go through adolescence smoothly and be able to achieve their academic goals.