Influence of Students’ Personal Characteristics on Their Study Behaviours

Abstract

Students, irrespective of their level of education, need counselling on how to learn effectively. An intervention was carried out at the university level in Ghana to improve study behaviour using study and self-reward skills counselling. The main thrust of the study was to determine the influence of personal characteristics of students namely age and marital status on study behaviour. The research was a quasi-experimental study comprising two treatment groups and one control group. The sample consisted of 60 students. A study behaviour inventory was used to gather pre-and post-test data. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested using mean scores and two-way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results showed that age and marital status of participants did not have significant influence on study behaviour at post-test. This suggests that age and marital status are irrelevant when offering counselling on study behaviour. It was, therefore, recommended that the personal characteristics of clients such as age and marital status should not determine counselling on study behaviour.

Keywords: Influence; Personal Characteristics; Study Behaviours