Family Factors and Reading Comprehension Performance among Primary School Pupils in Uyo Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State

Abstract

The article centred on family factors and reading comprehension performance of Primary school pupils in Uyo senatorial district of Akwa Ibom State. The purpose was to establish how family factors; parent marital status and family size influences pupils reading comprehension. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide this study. Ex-post facto research design was used. The population of the study consisted of 9,009 primary four pupils in Uyo Senatorial District while 420 Primary four pupils were randomly selected to participate in the study. Stratified random sampling technique was used to draw sample for this study. Two research instruments were used for the study. Family variable Questionnaire (FVQ) was designed to assess the various Family variable and Reading Comprehension Performance Test (RCPT). Three research experts from the Department of English, Early Childhood and Special Education and Department of Educational Foundations validated the instrument. The reliability coefficient was obtained using Cronbach’s Alpha and 0.75 and 0.67 reliability index were obtained for FVQ and RCPT respectively. These indicated high reliability of the instruments to measure what was intended to measure. The findings indicated that family variable influenced reading comprehension performance of pupils in primary schools. The results showed that pupils whose parents live together in harmony had the mean score of 72.40 while the pupils whose parents are either single, divorced, separated or dead had the mean score of 51.80. Null Hypothesis one showed that parents marital status influence pupils reading comprehension achievement. From the findings in this study, it was concluded that family factors such as parent’s marital status and family size have significant influence on the reading comprehension performance of their children. It was recommended that parents should endeavor to allocate quality time to educational activities. Parents should have the number of children they can comfortably raise and take care of.