A study of the relationship between academic achievement motivation and home environment among standard eight pupils

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between academic achievement motivation and home environment among standard eight pupils. The study was carried out on 235 standard eight Kenyan pupils from six urban and rural primary schools randomly selected from Machakos district. Their age ranged between 13 and 17 years. Two questionnaires, the simple profile (SP) and home environment questionnaire, were used to provide information on the pupil’s levels of academic motivation and home environment. A significant (p < 0.05) positive relationship was found between six of the home environmental factors, that is fathers’ occupation (r = 0.22), mothers’ occupation (r = 0.26), fathers’ education (r = 0.15), mothers’ education (r = 0.14), family size (r = 0.26) and learning facilities at home (r = 0.23) and academic achievement motivation. Parental encouragement was the only factor that was not significantly (r = 0.03) related to academic achievement motivation. Although these correlations are low, they showed that pupils’ motivation to do well in academic work is to some extend dependent on the nature of their home environment. It was recommended that parents need to be aware of the importance of their role in their children’s academic achievement motivation so that they can provide the necessary facilities at home.   Key words: relationship, achievement motivation, home environment, pupils, questionnaire