Perceived Social Support as a Correlate of Secondary School Students' Attitude to Biology in Federal Capital Territory (Fct) Abuja, Nigeria
Sr No:
Page No:
10-15
Language:
English
Authors:
Okigbo Ebele Chinelo*, Ifeoma Joy Nwedo
Received:
2026-02-06
Accepted:
2026-03-08
Published Date:
2026-03-19
Abstract:
The study examined perceived social support as a correlate of secondary school
students' attitude to Biology in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria. Two research
questions guided the study while two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. A correlation
survey design was adopted. The population of the study comprised 29,158 senior secondary
school two (SS2) Biology students from the FCT, Abuja. From which a 2, 928 SS2 students
offering Biology was drawn using proportionate sampling and stratified random sampling
techniques. Students Social Support Questionnaire (SSSQ) adapted from “What is happening in
the classroom questionnaire” (WIHICQ), by Cohen, Mermelstein, Kamarck, and Hoberman
(1985) and Biology Students’ Attitude Scale (BSAS) adapted from Students Attitude towards
Biology (SAB) by Danilo (2019) were used as instruments for data collection. The instruments
were validated by three experts from Faculty of Education Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients of SSSQ and BSAS were found to be 0.79 and 0.81
respectively. The data were collected using SSSQ and BSAS with the help of the research
assistants who were Biology teachers. Pearson product moment correlation r was used to answer
the research questions and to test the hypotheses. The finding revealed that the relationship
between secondary school students’ perceived social support scores and attitude scores towards
Biology is moderate and significant. Also, there is a low positive relationship between various
dimensions of perceived social support scores and secondary school students’ attitude scores in
Biology but not significant. It was recommended that students’ Biology teachers should monitor,
changes in social support alongside the attitude of students to enable iterative refinement of
interventions to sustain gains over time in Biology in secondary schools.
Keywords:
Biology, Social support, Attitude and Secondary school.