Abstract
This study examined the impact of polygamy on the academic performance of University of Ilorin’s undergraduates, Nigeria. A sample of 490 respondents were selected randomly using descriptive survey design. The chi-square analysis further validated the relationship between the research variable stated in the hypotheses. The result of this study showed that 490 respondents participated in the study and 61.3% of the respondents agreed that students from polygamous family were more likely to perform low in academic work than students from monogamous family and 38.7% disagreed. This means that 61.3% of the respondents believed that polygamous family hinder the academic performance of the University students. The study also revealed that infertility is the leading perceived factor among others as a cause of polygamy. Thus, this study concludes that polygamy has enormous impact on undergraduates’ academic performance as perceived by the University of Ilorin’s undergraduates. Hence, recommendations are made that parents should re-examine their financial support to students. Added is that school social workers should be employed in all institutions of learning and adequate supervision be put in place to ensure provision of necessary guidance service to the students.
Keywords: Academic Performance, Family, Polygamy, Socio-Economic Status, Undergraduate