Abstract:
The study examined the relationship between self-esteem and attitude to school on students’ academic
performance among Federal Government Colleges in Northwest zone of Nigeria. Three research questions,
objectives and research hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive correlational design. A
sample of 269 SSII students was drawn from the population of 3,430 through multi-stage sampling technique
and with the aid of Research Adviser (2006) table for determining sample size. Two set of instruments were
adapted in the study: Akinboye (1985) Adolescent Personality Data Inventory (APDI) Sub-scale A to measure
the students’ self-esteem with a reliability ‘r’ index of 0.67, Adapted version of Federal Ministry of Education
Questionnaire on Attitude to School Scale (PES) to measure student’s attitude to school with a reliability ‘r’
index of 0.87 and researcher designed tests in English language and Mathematics with a reliability ‘r’ indices of
0.71 and 0.66 respectively. Findings revealed no significant relationship between self-esteem and academic
Performance of students while the results of the multiple regressions analysis shows that attitude to school is a
better predictor of academic performance than self-esteem of students in Federal Government Colleges in Northwest
zone of Nigeria. Based on the findings, recommendations were made including that parents, teachers and
counsellors should try to encourage positive attitude to school in students in order to enhance their academic
performance since it is indicated in the research finding that attitude to school is a better predictor of academic
performance of students.
