INFLUENCE OF CHILD-BEARING IN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF STUDENT MOTHERS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN ENUGU STATE

INFLUENCE OF CHILD-BEARING IN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF STUDENT MOTHERS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN ENUGU STATE
Abstract
This study was conducted to find the influence of early marriage and childbearing on academic achievement and educational attainment of student mothers in tertiary institutions in Enugu State. Three tertiary institutions in Enugu State were used for the study. Three research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The total population of the study was 450 and the sample size of 150 student mothers was drawn from the population using simple random sampling technique. A 33-structured questionnaire was used to collect data while statistical mean and standard deviation were used for data analysis. Hypotheses were tested using t-test at 0.05 significance level. The findings of this study revealed that early marriage, childbearing and other domestic challenges has no influence on both academic achievement and educational attainment of student mothers. The study also showed that there is no significant difference between childbearing and academic achievement as well as educational attainment of the student mothers. Based on the findings the researcher recommended that coping strategies should be adopted by the student mothers.