Birth spacing, gender, physical attributes and being a twin also
affect personality formation and the interpretation of birth order and
behaviour. These factors influence how parents treat children and how
each child is viewed by the other siblings.
Birth spacing
changes the dynamics of strict birth order, too. If there is a gap of
five or more years between children, each child may be treated as an
only child or as a firstborn. If there is a large gap between groups of
children in a large family, each group may be treated as a separate
birth order family. For example, if child 1, 2, and 3 are three years
apart and there is a gap of six years before child 4 is born and child 5
and 6 follow in two year intervals, then child 1, 2 and 3 form a birth
order grouping of firstborn, middle and last and child 4, 5 and 6 form
another grouping of first middle, and last born.
Gender also has a
major impact on how a child is treated within the birth order
arrangement. The firstborn of either gender, no matter where in the
sibling order the child falls will often be treated as a first born. For
example if a family has two daughters then have two sons, the first
daughter and the first son will be treated as first borns. The daughter
is the true firstborn, but the first son is the first child in the
household to treated with what the family perceives as maleness.
Historically, this hold true and usually contributed to older sisters
not having a claim to inheritance because of their gender.
In
addition, if there is only one daughter in a family of three boys, the
daughter will often be treated as a first born no matter where in the
birth order she is born. The simple fact that she is the only one of her
sex allows her to take on the characteristics of a first born and be
treated as such. This obviously also applies to one son in a household
of daughters. That sense of specialness also applies to children’s
physical attributes and conditions. If a child of any birth order has a
serious medical problem or a physical or mental disability, that child
rises either to first born status or last born status because parental
attention is placed on this special child. Robust health and beauty can
also skew birth order expectations. For example, if there are two sons
and the younger is bigger and more athletic, the younger may be treated
as a first born because parental favor and expectation are higher for
this child. Sex describes the biological differences between men and
women, which are universal and determined at birth.
Birth is a
miracle, parents have no previous experience. Retains 200% attention
from both parents may become rival of one parent. He/she can be
over-protected and spoiled. Being the center of adult attention often
has difficulty sharing with siblings and peers. Prefers adult company
and used adult language.
Judith Rich (2000) said that birth
order can affect human psychology through many supposedly formative.
Effects of birth order are instead related to other factors.
Concept of Gender
March, Smith and Mukhopadhyay (1999) refers gender as the social
attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and
the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, a well as
relations between women and those between men. These attributes,
opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and learned
through specialization processes. They are context/time – specific and
changeable. Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a
woman or a man in a given context. In most societies there are
differences and inequalities between women and men in responsibilities
assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources as
well as decision making opportunities. Gender is part of the broader
socio-cultural context other important criteria for socio-cultural
analysis include class race poverty level ethnic group and age.
UNFEM (2001) gender refers to different roles that men and women play
in the society. Gender roles are reflected in virtually every social
institution including schools and health care systems. Gender has
powerful influence on academic achievement and behaviour. Gender has
expanded to include “sex†or event to replace the latter word. Gender is
now commonly used even to refer to the physiological physiology of
non-human animals without any implication of social gender roles (for
example dogs and cats).
According to Brett (2001) and Riley (2007) gender refers to the different roles that men and women play in society.
Moser (2003) emphasized that gender roles are reflected in virtually
every social institutions, including schools and health care systems.
The influence of gender.
According to Green, Cohen and Belhadjel
– Ghouayel (2005) is similar in strength to that of religion, race
social status and wealth. Gender has a powerful influence on
reproductive decision making and behaviour. Gender is a range of
characteristics used to distinguish between males and females
particularly in the cases of men and women and masculine and feminine
attributes assigned to them.
In an educational setting there
could be claims that a student was excluded from an educational
institution program, opportunity, loan student group, or scholarship due
to their gender. In the housing setting there could be claims that a
person was refused negotiations on seeking a house, contracting/leasing a
house or getting a loan based on their gender. Another setting where
there have been claims of gender discrimination is banking; for example
if one is refused credit or is offered unequal loan terms based on one’s
gender.
Another setting where there is usually gender
discrimination is when one is refused to extend their credit, refuse
approval of credit/loan process and if there is a burden of unequal loan
terms based on one’s gender.
Socially, sexual differenced have
been used to justify different roles for men and women, in some causes
giving rise to claims of primary and secondary roles.
Gender
also has a major impact on how a child is treated within the birth order
arrangement. The first born of either gender, no matter where in the
sibling order the child falls, will often be treated as a first born.
For example if a family has two daughters then has two sons, the first
daughter and the first son will be treated as first borns. The daughter
is the true firstborn but the first son is the first child in the
household to be treated with what the family perceives as maleness.
Historically, this held true and usually contributed to older sisters
not having a claim to inheritance because of their gender.
Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Students
Education is the bedrock of any nation. For an individual to develop
he/she has to achieve academic success or excellence. No wonder the
Federal Government of Nigeria has adopted education as an instrument par
excellence for effecting national development.
Ukwuije (1988)
said that poor academic achievement especially at secondary school level
has been so high in recent years that individuals, organization
institutions of higher learning Federal and State Governments are
beginning to wonder what will be its effect on the economy of the
country. To him, the Federal Ministry of Education had to set up a
committee to identify the causes and suggest ways of avoiding mass
failures.
One obvious indication for this mass failure in our
schools is provided by May/June 2000 annual report of West African
Examination Council (WAEC) as inadequate preparation for the examination
by the candidates.
Omolewa (1981) described the falling
standard of education as problems associated with educational
development of the country which are in form of expansion of schools
without proper physical and academic planning, inadequate provision of
necessary equipment, shortage of qualified teachers, the growing
tendency to the use of teaching profession as a springboard to more
lucrative jobs and the fall in the prestige of teachers. The need to
study the trends of the students’ academic achievement vis-a-vis the
more related factors responsible for this failing standard calls for
attention.
Many parents including some educated ones do not
believe that their own family background variables do influence their
children’s academic performance: some misformed individuals would
believe that a student’s academic achievement is a simple function of
inherited ability. Such parent’s thus, doubt the profound influence of
environment on academic performance and achievement of these students.
These parents need to be reminded about the fact that exposure to
different types of stimuli not within the school environment and
inherited ability yield different level of performance and achievement
of these students.
Salami and Alawode (2002) stated that parents
are mainly responsible for the educational and career development of
their children. According to them any laxity on the parts of the parents
in assisting and guiding the children may result in academic
backwardness and development of unwholesome behaviours.
The
foundation of what a person becomes in the society is laid in the home
and at the initial stage of life. Students from homes where the father
and mother are present will be taken care of, and such students are
likely to achieve self actualization later in life and high academic
attainment too. They concluded.
On the other hand, the same
authors observed that a child from single parent homes is likely to
suffer deprivation and denial of some rights and opportunities. This
claim by these authors can be attributed to students or children who are
fostered to their natural parents’ relatives or other extended family
members.
Fadeye (1985) observed that both roles to play in child
education. The father is to provide the necessary tools for the
educational advancement while the mother is supposed to supplement the
father’s effort in this regard. It holds that where supportive efforts
are lacking for the child he/she may perform poorly in academic. Less
attention may be paid to the education of the child where the parents
are not present.
Nwachukwu (1998) stated that children from
homes other than their parents’ to exhibit hostility, aggressiveness
anxiety phobia etc. than children from intact families. These behaviours
aforesaid can lead to academic achievement in one way or the other.
This claim can be assumed and attributed to fostered students as against
non-fostered students in secondary school in the course of their
academic pursuit.
Akinpelu (2004) confirmed the findings of
Berhrens and Kermon (1978) who found that in the 20s psychologists
generally assumed that intelligent Quocent (IQ) was the major predictor
of school achievement, but she added that other factors such as family
background personality characteristics, attitudes and interests also
contributed to academic success or failure. This means that academic
achievement can be affected by the way a child is reared, his/her place
of living and related factors in the lives of the students.
Babalola (2000) dealt with academic problems and performance of
secondary school students from monogamous and polygamous homes.
Delta (2004) claimed that academic achievement of a ch1ild is
influenced by two factors: his/her “will†to achieve and his/her
“natural ability†to achieve. This is to say, there are social and
physical factors that can affect the two other factors earlier
mentioned: the “will†and the “ability†to achieve. According to him,
other subculture of the ethnic.
Influence of Birth Order and Gender on Academic Performance
- The parents
- Personality position
- Intelligence
- Sexuality
- The family unity
- Sibling effect
