Ezra Sabo Litpan
Abstract
This paper employed correlational design to assess the relationship of mental health, home background and academic performance of senior secondary school students in Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna state. The population of the study consists of SSS II students in public Senior Secondary Schools in Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna state with a population of six thousand and seventy eight (6,078) students. The sample size for this study was 361 SSSII students. Three main instruments were used for this study. The instruments were mental health inventory (MHI), Home Background Questionnaire and academic performance tests. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of this study revealed, among others, that significant positive relationship exists between mental health, home background and academic performance of senior secondary school students. It was recommended, among others, that school authorities should establish functional counselling and psychological testing centres to attend to students with mental health problems in order to attain better academic performance.