Abstract
This study investigated truancy and stress as correlates of secondary school students’ academic performance in English Language and Mathematics in Rivers State. The study adopted correlational research design. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The population for this study is made up of 5,236 senior secondary one (SSI) students in the 261 government owned secondary schools in the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State. A sample size of 400 SSI students in public schools was used for the study drawn through multi-stage sampling method. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire constructed by the researcher titled: “Truancy and Stress Questionnaire” (TSQ). The instrument was validated by experts in Measurement and Evaluation, Department of Educational Psychology, Guidance and Counselling, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt. The reliability of the instrument was determined using test-re-test reliability method and yielded a reliability coefficient of TSQ (r = 0.83). Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to answer research questions and test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that there is a very weak and significant relationship between truancy, financial stress, workload and academic performance of secondary school students in Rivers State. Based on the findings, it was recommended that parents should collaborate with school management to take a drastic measure to reduce students’ truancy to enhance academic performance, financial stress should be reduced in all state secondary schools in Rivers State to enable secondary school students to perform better in their academics.
Keywords: Truancy, Stress, Financial Stress, Workload, Academic Performance