EFFECT OF HOME ENVIRONMENT ON PERSONALITY AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS OF GRADE 12 IN RAWALPINDI DIVISION

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the effect of home environment on the academic achievement and personality of students. Home environment has been identified as being an important contributing factor in child’s educational development. Very few researches have dealt with this dimension of education in Pakistan. The population of the study comprised 8533 Intermediate science male and female students of grade 12, who appeared in the Intermediate examination (part 1)2006, taken by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Rawalpindi. The sample of the study included 724 students, 410 were female and 314 were male. Three research instruments were used for data collection. To determine the personality of students a Five Factor personality inventory developed by Dr. Tom Buchanan (2001) was used. The intra-familial environment as perceived by students was measured by using the Index of Family Relations (IFR). Researcher translated these instruments into Urdu and used them after pilot testing. A Demographic Variable Information Performa, developed by the researcher, was used to collect information relating to the demographic variables of the study. The information about the achievement was collected from the Result Gazette of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Rawalpindi. Seventy null hypotheses were tested to find the effect of home environment, socio economic status, family relations, gender, parental education, income of the family, family size, birth order of the student and type of the family on students’ personality and achievement. Data was analyzed by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and t-test. It was concluded from the study that with the exception of birth order and family type, all the independent variables of the study had a significant effect on the academic achievement of students. However students’ personality was partially influenced by these variables.