Parental Involvement, Social Media use, and Peer Loyalty as Correlates of Political Knowledge Acquisition among University Students

Abstract

This study investigated Parental Involvement, Social Media use, and Peer Loyalty as correlates of Political Knowledge acquisition among University students. Correlation Analysis research design was adopted for the study. The population of this study was made up of 264 students from the department of Educational Foundations in political science option of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, who 
were admitted between 2020/2021 academic session and 2023/2024 academic session. With the use of simple random sampling method, a sample of 120 students was selected from 100 Level to 400 Level. The instruments for data collection were three self-developed questionnaires titled: “Parental Involvement Questionnaire (PIQ)”; “The Extent of Social Media Use Questionnaire 
(ESMUQ)”; and “Peer Loyalty Questionnaire (PLQ)”. These instruments were validated by three experts from the department of Educational Foundations. Data were analysed using both descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The findings of the study showed that there is a high level of parental involvement and the use of social media in political knowledge acquisition among university students. The findings also revealed a strong and significant relationship between parental involvement and political knowledge acquisition among university students. There is also a strong significant correlation of peer loyalty with political knowledge acquisition among the university students. Based on these findings, the study recommended the inclusion of media literacy courses in the curriculum of educational institutions to enable students critically assess information from social media and distinguish credible sources.