Abstract:
Reading habit is critical for students’ success at all levels and literature have shown that
poor reading habit is prevalent among secondary school students in Nigeria, especially in
Osun State. Attendant results of poor reading habit include: mass failure, poor
communication skills and poor analytical skills which have been a source of concern to
stakeholders in educational sector. Existing studies focused largely on students’ academic
performance, with little attention paid to reading habit and how it could be influenced by
social network use, peer influence and parental involvement. This study, therefore, was
carried out to examine social network use, peer influence and parental involvement as
predictors of reading habit among public secondary school students in Osun State, Nigeria.
The Expectancy-value and Social Cognitive theories were used as the framework, while
mixed-methods was adopted. The multistage sampling procedure was used. The three
senatorial districts in Osun State were enumerated. The simple random sampling technique
was used to select one of the two educational zones in each of the three senatorial districts.
The simple random sampling method was assumed to pick two Local Government Areas
(LGAs) from each educational zone. The proportionate-to-size sampling method was
assumed to pick 12 government owned schools in the selected LGAs, and 20.0% of
students in each school totaling 1,101 students. The instruments used were Reading habit
(r=0.73), Social Network Use (r=0.90), Peer Influence (r=0.89) and Parental Involvement
(r=0.86). Six sessions of Focus Group Discussions were held with 60 secondary school
students across six schools. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics,
Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regressions at 0.05 level of significance,
while qualitative data were content-analysed.
The respondents’ age was 16.00 ± 1.36 years. The majority (58.0%) read for more than
one hour every day. However, teachers’ note (x =3.75) was the most preferred reading
material, followed by textbooks (x =3.44). The purpose of reading was to pass
examinations (x =3.59). The most preferred social network site was Facebook (x =3.30).
Against the threshold of 2.50, peer influence (x = 2.70) was high among the students,
while parental involvement (x = 2.25) was low. There were positive significant
relationships between social network use (r = 0.35), peer influence (r = 0.24), parental
involvement (r = 0.29) and reading habit. Social network use, peer influence and parental
involvement jointly contributed significantly to the reading habit of students [F (3, 1078) =
68.09 Adj. R2= 0.16] accounting for 16.0% of its variance. Social network use (β = 0.27)
and parental involvement (β =0.19) predicted reading habit, while peer influence did not.
The students admitted that social network use gave them the opportunity to be abreast of
latest information on various subject areas.
Social network use and parental involvement, more than peer influence, enhanced reading
habit among public senior sec
ondary school students in Osun State, Nigeria. Fathers and mothers should participate in
the reading activities of their children while teachers should encourage social network use
towards improvement of their students’ reading activities.
