The relationship between psychological capital and academic performance of social work students

• Main Author: Adams Ogirima Onivehu
• Format: Article
• Language: ces
• Published: Tomas Bata University in Zlín 2020-05-01
• Series: Sociální Pedagogika
• Subjects: psychological capital; academic performance; social work students
• Online Access: https://soced.cz/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-relationship-between-psycho-Adams-Ogirima-Onivehu.pdf

The Nigerian society emphasizes the importance of academic achievement as a major yardstick for measuring students’ ability and the effectiveness of the educational system. Thus, the academic performance of social work students has been the prime tool for admission into higher schools, employment and even the choice of future career. The present study investigated the relationship between psychological capital and academic performance of social work students in University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research method of correlational type was adopted for the study. The study population consisted of all students in the Department of Social Work who were enrolled in the 2018-2019 academic year. The sample included 180 third and fourth year students, selected by simple random sampling. The research instrument for the collection of data was the Luthans’s Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ) and a pro forma. Three research questions were raised and one null hypothesis was formulated and tested. Data were subjected to frequency counts, percentage, correlation analysis and multiple regression. The results of this study showed that there is a significant positive relationship between the four factors of psychological capital (resilience, hope, optimism and self-efficacy) with academic performance. It was recommended that psychological capital should be incorporated into the social work curriculum in Nigerian universities so as to boost the level of students’ performance in the social work programme.