Personality Factors And Social Adjustment Among Secondary School Students In Calabar Education Zone Of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of personality factors (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) on students’ social adjustment in Calabar Education Zone. Literatures related to the variables under study were reviewed accordingly. The study adopted survey research design. The sample for this study comprised 710 senior secondary school three students randomly selected from 50 public secondary schools in Calabar Education Zone out of a population of 7,096 representing 10% of the students’ population. The instrument used in collecting data for the study was “Personality Factors and Students’ Social Adjustment Questionnaire” (PFSSAQ). The instrument was validated by two experts in Psychology and one expert in Measurement and Evaluation unit and the reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha method which gave coefficients that ranged from .74 and .86. Data collected from 687 out of the 710 students sampled in the study was analyzed using descriptive statistics, One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Independent t-test tested at .05 level of significance. The result of the analysis revealed that openness to experience, conscientiousness and agreeableness had significant positive influences on social adjustment among students in Calabar Education Zone while neuroticism has a significant negative influence on social adjustment. It was also revealed that students who are extroverts differ significantly from their counterparts who are introverts on social adjustment. Based on these, it was recommended among others that students should be encouraged to apply any of the personality traits principle dimensions to enable them unravel how it affect social adjustment which is very relevant in determining the degree of academic success.