Academic Self-Efficacy as a Determinant of the Need for Cognition, Parental Involvement, and Extraversion among Secondary School Students in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the need for cognition, parental involvement, andextraversion as factors determining academic self-efficacy among secondaryschool students in Oyo State, Nigeria. It adopted a correlational type of thedescriptive research design. The study used a total sample of 300 secondaryschool students who were chosen based on a multistage sampling technique.Data were collected by means of a questionnaire focusing on the followingvariables (Need for Cognition r=0.84; Parental Involvement r=0.83;Extraversion r=0.86; and Self-Efficacy r=0.87). Data were analysed usingPearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression.The results revealed that the need for cognition (r=.804), and parentalinvolvement (r=.788) had a strong positive correlation with academicself-efficacy while extraversion had a weak correlation with academicself-efficacy (r=-.203). Parental involvement was the most potent outof the predictor variables (β=.478), followed by the need for cognition(β=.365). Extraversion made a negative contribution to the predictor ofacademic self-efficacy (β=-.245). Regression analysis revealed that thethree independent variables (need for cognition, parental involvement, andextraversion) jointly accounted for 55.2% (Adjusted R2=.552) variationin the prediction of self-efficacy. The study recommends that schoolcounsellors should counsel students on the need to develop higher academicself-efficacy in order to bring about excellent results in their academics.Keywords: need for cognition, parental involvement, extraversion,academic self-efficacy