INSECURITY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' INTEREST AND ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT IN AGUATA EDUCATION ZONE OF ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined Insecurity and its Influence on Secondary School Students' 
Interest and Academic Engagement in Aguata Education Zone of Anambra State. 
Four research questions and two hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance 
guided the study. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the 
study comprised all the 8,852 students in all the secondary schools in Aguata 
Education Zone of Anambra State, Nigeria. A sample of 480 students was selected 
using multi-stage sampling approach. Two instruments were used for data 
collection, namely, students' interest scale (SIS) and students' academic engagement 
questionnaire (SAEQ); both structured by the researcher. The SIS contains eight 
items while the SAEQ contains seven items, making a total of 15 items. The 
instruments were validated by three experts and tested for reliability using 
Cronbach's alpha which yielded reliability indices of 0.73 and 0.81 for SIS and 
SAEQ respectively. The collected data were analyzed using mean and standard 
deviation to answer the research questions and t-test to test the hypotheses at 0.05 
level of significance. The findings of the study revealed among others that students' 
interest and academic engagement were adversely affected by the state of insecurity 
in the zone. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that 
government should put all efforts in place to ensure that there is proper security in the 
area.