Teacher-Student Relationship and Social Comparison as Predictors of Academic Motivation among In-School Adolescents in Ibadan North-East
This study examined the interactive influence of Teacher-Student Relationship and Social Comparison on Academic Motivation among In-School Adolescents in Ibadan North-East. A cross-sectional research design was employed with a multistage sampling technique. A purposive sampling technique was used to select the local government area because of its diverse population of in-school adolescents. A simple random sampling technique by balloting was adopted to select six co-educational secondary schools across the public and private strata, and a convenience sampling technique was utilized to select 383 respondents, 181 males (47.3%) and 202 females (52.7%). Participants responded to self-measures of the Inventory of Teacher-Student Relationships (ITSR), Social Comparison Scale-Revised (ASCS-R), and Academic Motivation Scale-High School Version (AMS-HS 28). Four hypotheses were generated and tested using hierarchical multiple regression. Results revealed teacher-student relationship (β= .32, t= 6.53, p < .01) and social comparison (β= .35, t= 7.37, p < .01) significantly predicted academic motivation. Student academic level (β= -11.62, t= -6.40, p < .01) was also a significant statistical predictor, with the variables F(5, 377) = 23.05, p < .001 jointly explaining 22% of the total variance in academic motivation. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the social relations of students should be one of the top priorities of school administrators.