INVESTIGATION OF STUDENTS' PERSONALITY TRAITS ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN CHEMISTRY AMONGST SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BOSSO L.G.A, NIGER STATE

Abstract

The Study examined the students' personality traits influence on academic performance in Chemistry amongst secondary schools in Bosso L.G.A., Niger State. The objective of the Study was to find out the influence of Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism on the academic performance of some selected secondary school students. The Study Design was Descriptive Survey Design in which a 20-item questionnaire was utilized as the research instrument. The population of the Study was made up of all SS2 students of all public secondary schools in Bosso L.G.A., which constituted a total of 5,671 students. Simple Random Sampling Technique was used for the selection of 360 students as sample. Hence, 360 questionnaires were administered out of which 200 were certified for the analysis. Face and Content validity was used to determine the validity of the instrument and the reliability of the instrument was determined by using Test-Retest Method in which Crobanch Alpha formula was used to determine its consistency and a Pearson correlation coefficient of .85 was obtained. The five research questions were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation. The Study's findings revealed that, openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness positively influence the academic performance of students and only neuroticism influences the academic success of secondary school students in Bosso L.G.A negatively. The Study recommended that parents should encourage their neurotic children to have full confidence in themselves and their abilities.