Influence of Parental Socio-Economic Status and Social Media Usage on Academic Performance Among Senior Secondary School Students in Gwale Local Government Area of Kano State.

ABSTRACTThe study examined the Influence of Parental Socioeconomic Status and Social Media Usage on Students academic performance in senior secondary schools in Gwale Local Government Area, Kano State, Nigeria. Four research objectives with two corresponding research questions and two hypotheses were population of this study comprised of 11,935 of SS3 senior secondary schools students in Gwale Local Government Area, out of which 378 students were selected as sample using multi-stage sampling technique. The data were collected using two instruments; an adaptation of parental socioeconomic status Questionnaire (SCSQ) which was reported to have the reliability index 0.86 and adaptation of social media usage Scale (SMUS) which was also reported to have the reliability index 0.93.The current researchers revalidated the content and construct validity of the instruments. Reliability of these instruments were reviewed via pilot test carried out on 40 senior secondary school students who were not part of the sample. The instruments were found to have the reliability index of 0.80 and 0.83 respectively. Also mathematics transition Examination of 2023/2024 was used as measures of academic performance. To analyse the data descriptive statistic of simple percentage was used to answer research questions 1 and 2, also t-test for independent sample was used to test hypotheses 1 and 2 of the study. The research findings shows that majority of senior secondary school students in Gwale Local Government Area are from high level of parental socioeconomic status and have low level of social media usage. It was then found out that students from high level of parental socioeconomic status were academically brighter than their counter parts. Also, students with high level of social media usage were academically brighter than their counterparts. It was concluded that, parental level of socioeconomic status and social media usage affect academic performance of the senior secondary school students in the study area. Based on these findings, the study recommended that, Parents should sustain their level of support of education of their children (students in the study area). P.T.A meetings should be encouraged to guide parents on the importance of their support on academic performance of their children; Government should find measure of increasing socioeconomic level of the parent so that both students from large and small level of socioeconomic status have enough educational provisions. Research findings showed that students who use social media were had high academic performance. To this end, the researchers recommended that social media should be used for educational purposes as well and Students should be monitored by teachers and parents on how they use social media sites. This is to create a balance between social media and academic activities of students to avoid setbacks in the academic performance of the students.