Psychosocial Determinants of Academic Underachievement Among Secondary School Students in Ekiti State

This study investigates the psychosocial determinants of academic underachievement among senior secondary school students in Ekiti State, South West Nigeria. Academic underachievement, where a student's performance consistently falls below their estimated intellectual capability, is a multifactorial problem with roots in individual, family, peer, and school-level factors. This research adopted a descriptive correlational design involving 400 SS2 and SS3 students identified as underachievers based on a discrepancy between intelligence test scores and examination grades across eight schools in Ado-Ekiti and Ikere-Ekiti. The Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale, the Academic Motivation Scale, and the Family Environment Scale were administered. Hierarchical regression analysis identified the unique variance contributed by each psychosocial predictor domain. Results indicate that low academic motivation, poor family cohesion, and negative school belonging are the three strongest psychosocial predictors of underachievement, collectively accounting for 51 percent of variance in academic performance scores. Perceived teacher rejection emerged as a mediating variable between school environment and motivation. The study recommends that school counsellors in Ekiti State develop integrated psychosocial support programmes that simultaneously address motivational, familial, and school climate factors in identified underachieving students. Keywords: academic underachievement, psychosocial determinants, secondary students, Ekiti State, academic motivation.