STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF PARENTAL SUPPORT ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT IN THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN CAPE COAST METROPOLIS OF GHANA

Students perception of parental support or involvement on students achievements motivation seems to be a critical issue. The study examined the support parents give to their children and the relationship between those supports and students achievement motivation in Business Management in Senior High Schools in Cape Coast Metropolis. This study adopted descriptive research design and used a sample of 200 Senior High School Business Management students.The data collected to answer research question 1 and 2 were done using means and standard deviation. Results indicated that parents supported and involved themselves in their wards education. Again, findings revealed that students associated strong relation between parental support and students achievement motivation in Business Management. The study recommends that as parents are already supporting and involving themselves in their childrens education, it dawns on them to also provide guidance and counselling for their wards. Also, parents should be encouraged to maintain and if possible, increase the level of support they are already providing. The study further concludes that parents should provide all forms of supports to their wards including financial and emotional support of which they are all equally important.


ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 9(02), 43-49 44 and negative traits which direct their actions, sometimes throughout their life. It is the responsibility of every parent to give their wards the best of education. Parents enroll their wards into schools, pay their fees and give them money for their upkeep.Business studies at the Senior High School aims at preparing students to enter into careers, to render efficient service and to advance from their present level of employment to high levels (Labaree, 2009). It promotes an opportunity to every student to develop the skills, abilities and understanding that will enable him to handle completely his personal business affairs. However, students" academic performance in the subject (Business Management) has become a worrying issue to many stakeholders of education including parents (Labaree, 2009). Most often, the public attribute these poor performances to the teachers and schools neglecting parents" role in their children"s education. Lack of involvement and recognition of the vital roles played by parents and families in formulating these reforms and implementing them have over the years contributed to the falling standards in education (Labaree, 2009).
Per this assertion, parents" support or involvement is a key factor in education especially on their ward"s performance (Hill & Taylor, 2004). Parents always want the best for their children and always want their children to live a better life than they did. Parents provide as many resources as they can, but this can also be negative to the child"s education. Parents typically, do not become involved with their children unless difficulty arises, which then can lead to frustration for their children (Pomerantz, 2005). Parents and teachers are supposed to collaborate more as partners in their ward"s education both in the present and in the future (Ademola, 2013). The relationship of parents and their wards or parent"s involvement serves multiple purposes.Parental involvement has long been believed to be associated with a range of enhanced school outcomes for elementary, middle, and high school students, including varied indicators of achievement and the development of student attributes that support achievement, such as selfefficacy for learning, perceptions of personal control over school outcomes, and self-regulatory skills and knowledge ( Parental support or involvement is very essential to the total growth and development of their wards. If the supports given by parents to their wards are not enough, it can lead to instability and confusion in the children (Pomerantz, 2015), which consequently affect their developmental outcomes and motivation. Research has shown that, parent"s communication, interaction, support or involvement are the most fundamental and important among various factors affecting children"s fostering and healthy character as well as their motivation (Smith &Hausafus, 1998). It is very important for parents to know the right way they can use to motivate their wards in their education. Parents should aid or assist in developing the attitude and character of their wards right from the home, this will serve as a fundamental block where the teacher will continue the total development of the child (Bempechat, 1992).
Deslandes, Royer, Turcotte and Bertrand (1997) conducted a study to examine the influence of parental support and parent"s involvement in schooling on student motivation and academic achievement at the secondary level. They found that the three factors, parenting acceptance, supervision and psychology autonomy granting, contributed to school achievement and motivation. Similarly, Luchuck and Lynne (1998) conducted a study which investigated the relationship between parent involvement in elementary school on student motivation and student achievement. Findings indicated that parent involvement contributed to greater academic gains by their children. Also, a study conducted by Martinez (2015) on parent involvement and its effects on the student academic motivation suggested that students of highly involved family members significantly outperformed and are motivated than those with family members who were not involved in their education. Krishna (2011) examined aspects of parental involvement that lead to student academic motivation and achievement. The study indicated that identifying organizational barriers, identifying possible effective strategies to overcome the organizational barriers, and establishing an effective and collaborative partnership between school and home has a great impact on parental involvement, and may lead to an increase in student achievement.
Ilie and Tirdia (2015) conducted a study on parental involvement and intrinsic motivation with primary school students confirmed that school performance is significantly associated with the level of parental involvement and intrinsic motivation of student. Oman, Ahmad, Hasan and Roslan (2017) conducted a study on parental involvement and achievement motivation. The findings contributed to understanding the relationship between parental involvement and achievement motivation elements among the students in vocational colleges. Similarly, Coleman and McNeese (2009) conducted a study to investigate the relationship among parental involvement, student motivation and academic achievement. The findings revealed that there seems a relationship between parent involvement and student motivation, the data of the analysis showed that the relationship between parents" involvement and student motivation might be direct and the relationship between student involvement and their academic performance might also be direct.Several studies have been conducted on how parental support (Ademola, 2013 Thornton, 2015;Desforges&Abouchaar, 2003) influence students" academic motivation. These studies are inconclusive and their findings have limitations in terms of their generalizations. In furtherance, it appears that only a few study have been conducted on how parenting styles or parental support influence Business Management students" academic motivation. It is against this background that the current study intended to examine the impact of parental involvement or parental support and students" academic motivation in Business Management in the Senior High Schools of Cape Coast Metropolis.

Research Questions:
The study was guided by the following research questions: 1. what type of supports do parents give to their children? 2. what is the relationship between parental support and students" motivation in business management?
Literature Review:-Nicholls Achievement Goal Theory: Achievement goals refers to the aims, the purpose or focus of a person"s achievement behaviors. These goals are dynamic cognitive entities representing future-based possibilities that respond to changes in the person as well as the situation. Achievement goal theory has emphasized the role of achievement goals in regulating a wide variety of affective, behavioral and cognitive outcomes during peoples" competence pursuit. The achievement goal theory proposed that goal orientation is developed and altered through various socialization processes, including the motivational climate created by parents, teachers and coaches.
Epstein Theory of Parental Involvement: Epstein (1989) recognized parent involvement as an important factor in the quality of child"s education. Joyce Epstein"s school-family-community partnership model is an influential model in parent involvement research. The model redefines the relationship between schools, families and community as one of the overlapping spheres of influence that share a concern about the success of the child. As a framework of increasing parental participation in education, the model recognizes six types of educational involvement and encourages schools, communities and families within the six types. The model has been influential in shaping social policy regarding parent involvement in education (Epstein & Van Voorhis, F. L., 2001).

Ecological System Theory for Parenting:
Bronfenbrenner (2005) developed the ecological systems theory to explain how everything in a child and the Childs environment affects how the child grows and develops. He labelled different aspects or levels of the environment that influences the children development, including the micro system which refers to institutions and groups that directly impact the Childs development. The microsystem involves family, school, religious institutions, neighborhood, and peers (Bronfrenbrenner, 1990). Nicholl"s achievement theory is adopted in our study because it emphasizes on how the need to achieve aims and goals serve as a source of motivation. It shows that ability can be conceived in two ways. Firstly, ability can be judged high or low with reference to the individuals past performance and knowledge and also ability can be judged as capacity relative to that of others.

Empirical Review:
Omar, Ahmad, Hassan and Roslan (2017) conducted a study to identify the relationships between parental involvement and achievement motivation with an objective measure of the students" achievement through students" perception in vocational colleges, Malaysia. The study also examined the mediating effects of achievement motivation with students" achievement and moderating role of gender for the link between parental involvement, achievement motivation and students" achievement. Three hundred and sixty students (106 girls and 264 boys) were selected at thirteen vocational colleges all-around Malaysia. The results showed that parental involvement was positively related with achievement motivation and students" achievement which in turns achievement motivation also related to students" achievement. There were full mediation effects between achievement motivation and parental involvement with students" achievement. While gender was moderately correlated between achievement motivation and students" achievement. The findings contribute to understanding commonly reported relationships between parental involvement and achievement motivation elements with students" achievement among the students in vocational colleges.
The researchers focused on only one aspect of parents" involvement such as parent"s participation in school activities, providing specific learning for their wards and monitoring their assigned task but neglected other aspects such as providing financial aids, providing them with the necessary materials and paying of fees. There are a number of factors that could affect the internal validity of the study, yet, they were not addressed by the researcher. The effective directions and assistance from parents can also affect the academic motivation of students but were not considered in the study.
Illie and Tirdia (2015) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between parental involvement towards the school (evaluated according to the frequency of interactions with the teacher and the teacher"s perception on the quality of this interaction), the intrinsic motivation for learning and the educational performance. The participants in the research were students in the 3rd and 4th grade and their teachers. The results confirmed the hypothesis that school performance is significantly associated to the level of parental involvement and of intrinsic motivation. With this study, the results were statistically analyzed and presented in the way that facilitated better understanding by any reader. The data collected was consistent with the data presented and the conclusion of the study was clearly stated Lourdes, Isaura and Francisco (2018) conducted a study to investigates the potential effects of parental involvement at home on student motivational orientation in school work and achievement and how such effects may be mediated by the perceived emotional quality of parent-student interactions (positive and negative). The participants in the study included 631 students in the 2nd and 3rd cycle of compulsory education (5th to 9th grade) from 6 schools in the Lisbon area in Portugal. Students" age ranged from 10 to 16 years (M=12.8; SD=1.64) with 53% being female. Hierarchical analysis using structural equation modeling was carried out, taking into consideration three sets of variables (background, perceived parental involvement and emotions) to predict schoolwork self-regulation and academic achievement. Results emphasized the role of emotions, highlighting the importance of affective components in parent-child interactions in order to understand the students" motivational orientation and academic achievement. The methods used in this study is very good and it will allow others to replicate the study elsewhere if needed. The method used justify the exact specification of selection criteria, sample size, response and rate and any statistics used. This study was able to achieve it aims.
Chohan and Khan (2010) conducted a study to examine the impact of educational support given by the parents on the academic motivation and on the self-concept of grade 4 public school students. The findings of the study revealed that parent"s contribution to their children"s education has a consistent and positive effect on academic achievement and on the self-concept. Also, a study conducted by Karibayeva and Bogar (2014) on the extent to which parents" involvement in middle school influence children"s educational motivation and progress. The findings of the study revealed that parent"s involvement or support is a crucial factor during the school life of children especially in the primary and middle school. Building involvement helps in building a good relationship with teachers and also motivate student to learn and participate in school activities.

Research Methods:-
The study adopted descriptive cross sectional survey design. Descriptive research is a research which specifies the nature of a given phenomenon. It determines and report the way things are. It involves collecting data in order to answer research questions, the unmet status of the study (Gay, 1992). The study adopted descriptive research design because it helped to identify the nature of relationship between our research variables (parental support and student"s achievement motivation). The sample frame for the study was form two and form three Business Management students in the senior high schools within Cape Coast Metropolis. The selection was done using systematic probability sampling method. This method was used to enable each student to have an equal chance of being selected. A sample size of 200 was used. This sample is 14% of the estimated accessible population. This is done based on suggestion of Asamoah -Gyimah and Duodo (2007) that, for quantitative studies, a sample size of 10% -30% of the population is enough for generalization purposes.Self-Developed questionnaire would be used to collect data from Business Management students from the selected nine senior high schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis. The questionnaire was closed-ended type having five-point Likert scale labeled: Strongly disagree (a value of 1), disagree (a value of 2), Neutral (a value of 3), agree (a value of 4) and strongly agree (a value of 5). The Likert scale gauged the degree to which there was an agreement or disagreement with the statement representing a common issue.
The data collected was edited, coded and entered into SPSS version 22 for processing. After the data was processed, it was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Research question 1 was analyzed using Pearson correlation.

Results Of The Study And Discussion:-What type of support do parents give to their children?
In the quest to find out the type of support parents gave to their children, respondents (students) were asked to indicate their responses to some statements in the Section A of the questionnaire. Therefore, the statements and the responses have been presented in Table 5. From Table 1, it could be observed that, the students agreed (M = 3.33; SD = 0.77) that their parents monitored their school activities. In the same direction, students strongly agreed (M = 3.5; SD = 0.74) that their parents encouraged them to learn. The students strongly agreed (M = 3.47; SD = 0.71) that their parents had high realistic expectation for their achievement. Again, the respondents strongly agreed (M = 3.52; SD = 0.75) that their parents ensured hard work and self-discipline in them. Finally, it could be confirmed that, given mean of means to be 3.43 and overall standard deviation to be 0.77, parents gave the support the students needed. Thus, their responses did not differ much from one another. Inference can therefore be made that; the quality of parenting can be more essential than the quantity of time spent with the student (Darling & Steinburg, 1993; Spera, 2005; Virasiri, Yunibhand&Chaiyawat, 2011; Tremblay, 2015).

What is the relationship between parental support and students' motivation in business management?
In other to find the relationship between parental support and students" motivation in business management means and standard deviation.

48
The statement and the responses have been presented in Table 6. The results from Table 2 shows that, the students strongly agreed (M = 3.44; SD = 0.77) that payment of their fees by their parent motivated them to learn. Students strongly affirmed (M = 3.55; SD = 0.67) that buying of text books by their parents motivated them to learn. The students strongly agreed (M = 3.46; SD = 0.80) that the payment of extra classes fees by their parents motivated them to learn. Moreover, for the statement, "Providing adequate money for my up-keep motivates me to learn", respondents affirmed. Thus, strongly agreed (M = 3.45; SD = 0.76) to the statement. On the issue of parents" advice instilling motivation, the students strongly agreed (M = 3.55; SD = 0.66) that their parents" advice motivated them to learn. Students were highly motivated (M = 3.54: SD = 0.72) to learn when they were encouraged by their parents. The respondents, however, strongly affirmed (M = 3.41; SD = 0.81) that, their parents" interest in their school activities motivated them to learn.
Generally, it could be confirmed (given overall mean = 3.48) that, students associated strong relation between parental support and students" motivation in business management. Given the overall SD = 0.74, the responses of students were homogenous and their reaction did not differ much from another. Results from these findings is consistent with the findings of Rosmaria, Ahmad, Hassan and Samsilah (2017) who also found that, parental involvement was positively related with achievement motivation and students" achievement and vice versa.

Conclusions:-
Parents" active support and involvement in their wards" education has been established through this study. It can therefore conclude the parents provide all forms of support to their wards and none supersedes the other.
Again, it could be concluded that parents support has influence on their wards" motivation in business management and such they parent factor should in child education should be emphasized.

Recommendations:-
Based on the findings from this study, the following recommendations are put forward: 1. As parents are already supporting and involving themselves in the students" education, it dawns on them to also provide guidance and counselling needs for their wards. 2. Parents should be encouraged to maintain and if possible, increase the level of support they are already providing.