Influence of Family Background on Academic Performance of Learners With Learning Disabilities in Uyo Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State.

The study investigated the influence of family background on academic performance of learners with learning disability in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom state. Four (4) hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The research design adopted for the study was the descriptive survey design and the sample size for the study consists of seventy-eight (78) Senior Secondary Two (SS2) students of the sample schools. The classroom teacher nominated the sample from two senior secondary two (SS2) classes of the Ministry of Education special education center for children with special needs Mbiabong Etoi, Uyo and St. Louis Inclusive education center Ikot Ekpene. The instruments for data collection were adopted; family background assessment questionnaire (FBAQ) and the students’ performance test (SPT). The FBAQ questionnaire was formulated on the basis of the four (4) research questions and was used to assess the family background of students, while the students’ performance test (SPT) consisted twenty (20) questions from four (4) subjects; English Language, Mathematics, Literature-in-English and Christian religious knowledge. These questions were derived from a standardized past examination question from the schools and was made available to the researcher by the class teacher and used to measure students’ performance. The results from the test were collated and analyzed using mean Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) to test the null hypotheses. The result showed that there is a significant influence of parental level of education, parental socio-economic background, parental occupation and family size on academic performance of learners with learning disabilities in Uyo Local Government. Recommendations were made on how to remediate this negative influence.