Influence Of Parenting Styles And Personality Traits On Learning Strategy Among Undergraduates Of Ekiti State

ABSTRACT

Various studies have implicated personality trait and other factors as determinants of academic performance. This study examined the role of parenting styles and personality trait in learning strategies employed by students particularly, among university undergraduates in Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti and Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE). In this study, parenting style (authoritarian, authoritative and permissive), personality trait (extraversion, openness, agreeableness, neuroticism, contentiousness) and kolb learning styles (diverges, assimilators, converges accommodator) were examined as possible predictors of learning strategies among undergraduate student. This study was an ex-post facto research where 364 undergraduates were randomly selected in two universities. These undergraduates responded to the psychological instrument (questionnaire) that comprised of parenting styles scale, the big five personality scale and the motivated strategies for learning strategies. Five hypotheses were tested using multiple regression and independent t-test. Result shows that Personality traits significantly predicted motivated learning strategies [F (5, 349) = 4.80, p = .001, R2 = .06], parenting styles significantly predicted motivated learning strategies [F (3, 360) = 30.82, p < .001, R2 = .20], personality traits and parenting style jointly predicted motivated learning strategies [F (8, 346) =12.58, p < .001, R2 = .23]. The difference in motivated learning strategies scores between males (M = 228.01, SD = 32.62) and females (M = 232.96, SD = 34.47) were not statistically significant, t (362) = -1.41, p = .16. There was also no age difference on motivated learning strategies [F (3, 360) = .14, p = .94]. The study concluded that parenting styles and personality trait have strong influences on the learning strategies people create and that both parenting style and personality influences undergraduate’s learning strategies. This study therefore recommends that undergraduates who would be parents in the future should show the best parenting style and personality trait that would help to shape their child learning strategies.

Keywords: Personality trait, parenting style, learning strategies, undergraduates