WORK ROLE SALIENCE, SELF ESTEEM AND PERCEIVED SELFEFFICACY AS PREDICTORS OF CAREER MATURITY AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Background: This study is focused secondary school students because this stage of education is a critical period for the development of career maturity. Some studies have contended that career maturity is largely determined by gender and socioeconomic status, while not disputing this, this study is set out to examine the impact of work role salience, self-esteem, and self-efficacy on career maturity of students. Methods: Two hundred and fifty seven (257) senior secondary school students with age ranging from15 to 19 years (mean age = 17 years) were selected from four public and private Secondary Schools in metropolitan city through stratified and systematic sampling techniques. The study being a survey research, made use of a questionnaire consisting of three validated subscales. Results: Multivariate and bivariate analysis were employed to analyse the data and the results indicate that work role salience, self-esteem, and self-efficacy jointly predicted (F3, 256 = 26.315, p<0.05) career maturity of students. Multiple regression analysis shows that there was a significant contribution of work role salience (β = .445; t = 8.496; p<0.05) and self-esteem, (β = .197; t = 2.109; p<0.05) to the career maturity of students. However, self-efficacy (β = .048; t = 0.859; p>0.05) did not contribute significantly in predicting the career maturity of students. Conclusion: The findings of the study show the need for policy makers and educationists to further institutionalize counselling and guidance services in secondary schools. Students personnel support should therefore create awareness and organize seminars for the students on career issues as this may improve students’ career self-efficacy

INSTITUTIONAL REGULATIONS AND STUDENTS’ ADJUSTMENT PROBLEMS: A CASE STUDY OF COVENANT UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Background: This study discusses students’ adjustment problems to institutional regulations and Covenant University is the case study. The main purpose of the study was to find out if students have problems adjusting to the university’s code of conduct and other regulations and to also find out the perceived causes of their maladjustment. Method: A 35 item questionnaire was developed for the purpose of this study titled ‘Questionnaire on Institutional Regulations and Students’ Adjustment Problem’. Two hundred (200) respondents were selected using both stratified and random sampling techniques. Three hypotheses were formulated at the 0.05 level of significance. The t test of independent samples, analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Results: Hypothesis one shows that students in the lower levels are not more maladjusted than students in the higher levels (t =1.020, df = 198, p>0.05) and that male students are more maladjusted than female students (t =.009, df = 198, p<0.05). Hypothesis two shows that there is a positive and significant relationship between participants’ family background and adjustment level. (r=0.426, p<0.05) while the third hypothesis shows that there is a joint and independent interaction of age, sex, college and service units on students adjustment (F (1, 162) =3.614, P=0.05), Conclusion: The study shows the need for policy and plans including making the university counselling centre more effective so as to reduce the number of students circumventing the laid down rules and regulations. These would reduce the alarming rise in delinquency, truancy and anti-social behaviours among the student