Abstract

This study predominantly focuses on investigating the respective impacts of family educational background, dwelling background and parenting styles on students’ overall academic performance with respect to governmental secondary schools in Bahir Dar town, Ethiopia. A descriptive survey method was employed. ’A 42-item questionnaire was constructed and pilot tested. The computed reliability coefficient was 0.76. Moreover, data on students’ academic achievement were obtained from the archive offices of sampled schools. While proportionate sampling was employed to determine representatives of each school and grade level, systematic random sampling technique was used to identify individual samples; making a total of 240 students. The methods of analysis employed were t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). ANOVA and t-test results with regards to the impact of family educational background and residence upon students’ overall academic achievement was found non-significant at F=0.59,df = 3 and 209, α=0.05 and at computed t- value of 1.35, and critical t- value (1.96) respectively. Whereas, parenting style had been found statistically significant to impact on academic achievement at (F=6.4, df= 3 and 209, α=0.05). In an attempt to identify the parenting style conducive for better performance, Tukey test or Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test had been employed, and the results revealed that authoritative parenting is far better over the rest three parenting styles.

Key words: Family educational background and parental residence, parenting styles, academic achievement.