Investigating the relationships between perceived family support, self-efficacy, and academic performance among undergraduate students at a South African university
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Date
2024
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
In South Africa (SA), the university dropout rates are alarmingly high which indicates that many students in South African universities struggle to complete their degrees. Identifying the underlying factors that causes students to dropout of university is important to lowering these dropout rates. This study therefore aimed to investigate the relationships between perceived family support, self-efficacy, and academic performance among undergraduate students at a South African university. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was used as the theoretical framework. A quantitative research approach was used. The phase of the broader doctoral study in which the current study was embedded employed a cross-sectional correlational design and online questionnaires were administered to undergraduate university students who were selected by simple random sampling. Secondary data was therefore used in this study. For the purpose of this study, convenience sampling was used. The sample included 274 young adults between the ages 18-35 years with the following inclusion criteria i.e. that the participants were: 1) undergraduate Community and Health Sciences (CHS) Faculty students or those enrolled in degree programmes at other faculties who took psychology as a service-level module, 2) registered for the academic year during which data were collected, and 3) the participants were between the ages of 18-35.
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Keywords
Academic performance, Ethical considerations, Multiple linear regression, Pearson product-moment correlation, Self-efficacy