Body Components as a Determinant of Students’ Academic Achievement in Mathematics in South-West Nigeria

The paper examines the body components as determinants of academic achievement of students in mathematics. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study; the population for the study comprises of all the Senior Secondary school (SSS3) students, while the sample for the study was made up of 1800 students randomly selected by using multi-stage technique across five states in the South-Western part of Nigeria. The instruments used for the study consisted (i) Achievement Test in Mathematics (ATM) (ii) Standardized Body Measuring devices (SBMD) (iii) Students Body Parameters and Bio-data Inventory (SBPBI). The face, content and construct validity of the instruments were ensured. The reliability of the instruments was estimated using the split half and Crombach Alpha formula and yielded 0.89 and 0.76 reliability coefficients respectively. The findings of the study revealed that there was a positive significant multiple relationships between performance in Mathematics and body components. Also the better the sizes of the head circumference, height, arm length, neck circumference, hip circumference and BAI the better the contribution to the performance of students in Mathematics. The study further revealed that the head circumference is the best determinant of academic achievement of students in Mathematics while the BMI is the worst determinant academic performance in Mathematics. Based on the findings, it was recommended that pregnant women should henceforth continually be placed on balance diet by the medical personnel in order to enhance proper development of all the organs and bodily parts of fetuses.

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Updated: June 27, 2023 — 11:08 am