The effect that maternal employment and maternal home-stay have on children's academic performance in selected schools of Male'

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to identify the effect that maternal employment and maternal home-stay have on children’s academic performance in selected schools of Male’. Social cognitive theory has been used to conduct the research which explains how mothers obtain and uphold certain behavioral patterns through behavioral, personal and environmental factors. This correlation study has used case-control approach to examine the student’s academic performance as there were two survey groups with varied outcomes that would be compared to one another. A sample size of 112 children has been taken to this study from 5th graders of the 4 selected schools in Male’. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data and the response rate of the survey was 98.21%. Findings of the study show that there is significant relationship between maternal working status and children’s academic performance with p-value significant at 0.01. The dissertation then identifies the other maternal factors such as mother’s education level and time spend with children have influence on the children’s educational performance with p-value significant at 0.01. In a detailed discussion section the dissertation delivers mothers with useful practical tips to improve their children’s academic performance and have provided other non-maternal factors need to be studied and address in order to improve children’s academic performance. In conclusion, the findings witness that there is a relationship between maternal working status and children’s academic performance since children of working mothers perform academically better than the children of non- working mothers.