Influence of Self Esteem, Self Efficacy and Interest in Schooling on Reading Comprehension of Secondary School Students in Oyo State

Abstract

Reading comprehension is a vital tool for academic excellence. However, the reading culture among students has recently been observed to be poor with the enormity of the effect transcending the individual to the family, society, government and the nation. Using a correlational design, this study investigated the influence of interest in schooling, academic self efficacy and self esteem on reading comprehension among 300 selected students in Oyo State. Four standardized and valid scales were used to retrieved data from participants. Three research hypotheses were raised and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation. The result indicated that the three variables had positive significant relationships with the criterion measure of reading comprehension. The combined effect of the three variables was also significant. It was recommended that enlightening students about interest in schooling, self efficacy and self esteem could impact their reading comprehension.