RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOME CHARACTERISTICS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS’ OF PUBLIC JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN MOREE, CENTRAL REGION, GHANA

ABSTRACT This study investigated the relationship between home characteristics and students’ academic performance among public junior high school (JHS) students in Moree. Home characteristics of this study focused on parental involvement in school activities (PI), parents’ absence from home (PA), parental educational background (PE), and the major economic activity of parents (PO). The sample consisted of 200 students selected by the simple random sampling technique and census with parents of these sampled students’ responding to a questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of .719. Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient (ρ) was used to measure the strength of the relationship. The key findings of the study suggested that the relationships between PI and SAP was positive and very weak, p (198) = .128, p = .072; PA and SAP was positive and very weak, p (198) = .058, p = .414; PE and SAP was also positive and very weak, p (198) = .022, p = .754; however, PO and SAP was negative but very weak, p (198) = -.113, p = .110. Meanwhile, the correlations involved in these relationships were not statistically significant. The study thus concluded that, home characteristics were not associated with students’ academic performance; that these home characteristics were not likely to improve students’ academic performance; there could be other factors relating to the student, teacher, or the community posing as main predictors of students’ academic performance. It is recommended that stakeholders and implementers of educational policies sensitize parents on the need to get genuinely involved in wards’ education. Past students from the community should be made to serve the same purpose.