PARENTAL ATTACHMENT AND PEER INFLUENCE AS CORRELATES OF ACADEMIC RESILIENCE AMONG IN-SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Academic resilience enables adolescents to persist, adapt and remain engaged when they encounter 
academic setbacks. This study examined the relationships between dimensions of parental attachment 
and peer influence and academic resilience among in-school adolescents in public secondary schools 
in Anambra State, Nigeria. A correlational survey design was adopted. The study population 
comprised 12,172 Senior Secondary II students in 263 public secondary schools. A multistage 
sampling procedure was used to select 750 students from 15 schools across three education zones; 
however, the available statistical output contained 680 complete cases, which constituted the analytic 
sample. Data were collected using an adapted Academic Resilience Questionnaire, the parental 
attachment component of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, and a Peer Influence 
Questionnaire. Internal consistency coefficients from the pilot study were .93, .92 and .91, 
respectively. Pearson product-moment correlations were used for analysis at the .05 level. Trust was 
negatively correlated with academic resilience (r = −.145, p < .001), while alienation (r = .044, p = 
.252) and communication (r = −.052, p = .176) were not significantly related to academic resilience. 
Peer pressure was negatively correlated with academic resilience (r = −.181, p < .001), peer behaviour 
was not significantly related (r = −.016, p = .675), and peer relationship showed a small negative 
correlation (r = −.102, p = .008). The findings indicate that specific relational dimensions, rather than 
parental attachment or peer influence as undifferentiated constructs, may be associated with 
adolescents’ academic resilience.