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Introduction

Global technological development increases the acceptability of education. Education significantly contributes to the growth of human capital and is directly related to the general comfort of individuals (Barfield 281). Education guarantees the achievement of information and expertise that helps people to become more productive.

Peoples productivity consequently has a positive effect on economic and technological growth, thus further exposing the need for education. This cycle places education as one of the most significant tools for human development, hence the creation of numerous educational facilities.

The success of an academic institution is a function of how well the students perform academically. Educational facilities are strategically established and located locally, provincially and worldwide. Instructors, teachers, and researchers have remained interested in investigating the variables that contribute to the effectiveness of students performance.

The contributing factors are found in the internal and external parts of the learning environment. The variables include school variables, social variables, household variables, peer variables, and student variables (Chambel and Curral 139).

Research studies concerning the influence of the variables on students academic performance date back to more than four centuries. The variables generally comprise of gender, age, social acceptance, culture, economic status, language, family revenue, and physical disposition. These variables are usually analyzed in terms of demographic characteristics.

Demography may be broadly defined as the way of discovering the effects and nature of demographic factors in the social and organic framework. Sadly, identifying and assessing the efficacy of learning is difficult and this difficulty increases owing to the constantly evolving standards of quality characteristics connected to the various participants perspectives.

One of the most investigated variables is the socioeconomic status. Numerous research studies have focused on the influence of socioeconomic variables on students academic performance. Most of these studies conclude that students socioeconomic factors have a significant effect on their academic performance.

Most of these scholars conclude that a low socioeconomic status negatively influences students academic excellence since the fundamental necessities of students remain unmet, making the students perform below their comfortable counterparts. Students from socioeconomically impoverished backgrounds are characterized by low self-esteem, which is another variable that has a negative effect of students academic achievement.

This study investigates the influence of students social backgrounds on their academic performance. The social backgrounds of the students were determined by considering several demographic characteristics, which included gender, age, major college, and college generation. Social factors were selected based on their considerable influence on students performance.

Academic performance was not measured by simply considering the students scores on tests and examinations. Students academic performances were measured through by accessing students performances in various internal factors that affected academic performance.

The variables used to determine students academic performances were career focus, academic performance, social life, time management, academic choice, personal perception, and overall satisfaction.

The following research question informed the direction of the literature review, the methodology, and conclusion:

What are the influences of gender, age, major college, and college generation on career focus, academic performance, social life, time management, academic choice, personal perception and overall satisfaction of respondents in this study?

Many college students have various experiences in their colligate careers. These experiences have allowed young men and women an opportunity to advance in higher levels of academia because of hard work and sacrifice. The purpose of this review is to shed light on the issues facing young Americans who endeavor into the colligate atmosphere.

These individuals attempt to earn a quality education, but want to attain a profitable career choice once he or she graduates from college (Woods 1312). Students deal many faces of life such as families, jobs, monetary issues, and not having transportation to get to and from school and work.

Wombles article speaks about a study that was conducted on twenty-five college students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to identify stress factors that may affect a students GPA (Womble 91).

By using the Perceived Stress Scale, developed by Cohen and Mermeistein, Womble was able to locate factors such as, fraternity and sorority activities, job responsibilities, relationship status, nutrition, social support from university and outside contributions, hours of sleep, and health related factors (Womble 94). The final outcome indicated that the participants stress instigators were not considerably linked with their Gross Point Average (GPA).

Bryants article explains the process of how The Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) and a seven-point Likert-type scale to assess the expectations and perceptions of the campus experience for college students (Brymoneant 1431).

The participants for the 2005 national comparison group were a combination of community or junior colleges, technical colleges, four-year private and public institutions, two-year private and public institutions, two-year career, and private colleges.

Participants were able to access to the survey in the classroom or via web, where classroom showed higher response rates over web submissions. By using the SSI it views students as the consumer, and allows them, to make a choice about whether (and where) to invest in education.

Bryants article brings attention to the factors college students from various institutions that affect their overall views and perceptions of satisfaction on whether the institution is meeting their expectations (Bryant 1433). Students would enroll at the institution again if they had to reconsider their enrollment decision, while asking them to respond to the thirteen standard demographic items and two campuses defined demographic items.

Students must adapt to the concept that they might have to take online classes, but this can be very difficult because not many students have the discipline to keep and manage a very strict and time consuming schedule (Sprinkle 280).

Many students have been accustomed to being in a high school setting where times are established in patterns of blocks where they attend four classes a day, but in college some students may only take one or two classes on a given day, but may take anywhere from two to three classes in a day (Thompson, Orr, Thompson and Grover 642).

Students have a difficult time adjusting to college life because one may live on campus, or going from class all the way to the opposite side of campus can be challenging because certain classes have specific time frames as to when they start (Sprinkle 661).

If a student is late to class some material may be missed, or the professor may not allow that student to enter into his or her class (Curral, 2005).

Students who take online courses to make it a more easier transition is very challenging because online courses require more work than the normal classes, but students must follow stricter timelines because work is done independently from other students the assignments are expected to be submitted when the date is given, and if the deadline is missed the student risks the possibility of not being able to complete that particular assignment (Sahin, 2008).

Universities at all levels of higher learning have invested a tremendous amount of budgetary and other resources to online learning tools, especially with regards to have a very efficient and effective online program that assist students success (Hamann, Pollock and Wilson 69).

Understanding the full scope of the participation, perceptions, and satisfaction of college student life, there must be an equal share of attention allowed to understanding the measures that influence those attributes. Student participation in college student organizations has been noted to be crucial components in the campus life of college students.

Research showed that non-Greek, non-governing organizations contributed significantly to campus activities. Student organization significantly enhances the college students level of interaction with campus by offering various opportunities for team collaboration, and promoting general social activities.

This contributes to students perception of the social element of the school environment. Besides the influence of student organizations, another influence that increases the satisfaction of the college student life would have to be the classroom.

Climate and interaction and its style in bridging a learning style that is beneficial, a diverse arena of students, maximizes student involvement in learning with other students promoting the students responsibility for their personal growth adding to their overall satisfaction within their college life (Wilson 90).

Many students believe that the size of the campus, but the classroom plays a crucial part into the students ability to adapt to college life in the classroom, but in the college atmosphere. Students have to realize that maybe the campus environment is as lenient on the student, but it is with the activities that have taken place on campus. Therefore this can be a reason for many first time college students feeling intimidated by their initial college experience.

Academic models are usually intangible and are not easily assessed because they occur as knowledge transformation and learners behavior alterations. This makes it difficult to come up with a common description of academic quality.

The meaning and achievement of academic quality depends on the learning circumstances and the learners personal characteristics. The internal and external mentors of the students (for example school workers, and church leaders) offer support and assistance to students and determine the quality of their educational performance. Students social circumstances significantly contribute to their academic achievements.

Apart from the social system, the contribution of parents increases the rate of students academic performance. Numerous research studies have investigated the association between students performance and gender with most results indicating that females perform better than their male counterparts. Ethnic background and parents occupation are factors that contribute to students performance.

Students socioeconomic statuses, which may be calculated, using different variables, have a significant effect on students performance. Examples of variables used for computing students socioeconomic status include parental academic qualification, parents profession, family revenue, and amenities used by students individually or jointly.

Students academic performance is directly proportional to their socioeconomic status. This means that students that have a high socioeconomic status exhibit better academic performance than students with low socioeconomic statuses.

The socioeconomic status of students will affect their academic performance since students with a high socioeconomic status will have better opportunities and access to advanced learning materials. Students with better educated parents perform better in their academics because learned parents have a better understanding of their childrens schoolwork, and understand the information taught in the class.

Students school performance is influenced by the family environment. A household environment that supports students learning will increase students academic performance. Such households are mostly provided by parents that have sound academic backgrounds.

Another important variable affecting students performance is time management. With effective time management, students will be able to accommodate both social and academic activities. Students academic success is not simply a factor of the time they commit to academic activities. It is important for students to engage in other social activities.

An academic structure that comprises of only scholarly activities will leave the students uninterested. It is necessary for students to integrate social activities in their weekly academic rounds. This will increase their social skills, cognitive abilities, and academic performance.

There are several variables that influence students academic performance. It is difficult to classify the variables that influence of students performance. Students in learning institutions have diverse socio-cultural characteristics.

The diverse nature of students demographics is considerable and this makes it necessary for researchers to examine the influence of these backgrounds on students academic achievement. The following section of this research presents the methodological approach used to identify students backgrounds and their performance.

Theoretical Framework, Definitions, and Procedures

Theory of Educational Productivity has identified three groups of nine variables that may be used to identify students academic abilities. The groups and their respective factors include aptitude (motivation, ability, and development), the environment (class, classmates, and TV), and teaching (quality and quantity).

This theory informed the selection of the dependent variables. The dependent variables used in this research were selected to cover participants aptitude, environment and teaching.

A group of independent and dependent variables were selected. The following independent variables were selected:

• Gender
• Age
• Major college
• College generation

The following dependent variables were selected:

• Career focus
• Academic performance
• Social life
• Time management
• Academic choice
• Personal perception
• Overall satisfaction

A questionnaire, which contained questions related to these variables, was distributed to 20 students. All participants were notified of the research objectives. The participants were assured that their responses were confidential.

All questions in the questionnaire were closed ended and required the participants to simply select the correct response. The first five questions investigated the students demographic characteristics. The remaining 20 questions required the participants to select one option from a multiple choice Likert Scale. The following measures were represented on the Likert Scale: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.

The participants responses were coded and input into Microsoft Excel Likert Scale. The results were transferred to SPSS where the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tool was used to investigate the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables.

The methodology was designed to analyze the influence of the selected social factors on students academic performance. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variables. ANOVA is used to examine the relationship between variables by comparing their means (Gelman 29).

The correlation coefficient (Sig.) indicates the relationship variables (Wichura 33). If Sig. <0.05, then the relationship between the variables is insignificant however, when Sig. >= 0.05 then there is a significant relationship between the variables (Cox 17). This principle was applied in drawing conclusions for each of the ANOVA results.

Findings and Implications for Future Research

Influence of Independent Variables on Career Focus

Tables 1 to 5 in the Appendix section of this research summarize the results of the analysis of variance used to determine the relationship between different factors on students career focus. All Sig. values in the five tables above are greater than 0.05.

This means that all the independent variables affect students career focus. This supports the suggestion that diverse social factors influence students career choices (Esters and Knobloch 735).

Influence of Independent Variables on Academic Performance

Tables 6 to 10 in the Appendix section of this research summarize the results of the analysis of variance used to determine the relationship between social factors on students academic performance. All Sig. values are greater than 0.05 and this verifies the relationship between social factors and academic performance (Rogers, Creed and Glendon 137).

Influence of Independent Variables on Time Management

Tables 11 to 15 in the Appendix section of this research summarize the results of the analysis of variance used to determine the relationship between social factors on students time management. All sig. values are greater than 0.05 and this verifies the suggestion that students respective social backgrounds affect their time management abilities (Turner, Steward and Lapan 45).

Influence of Independent Variables on Social Life

Tables 16 to 20 in the Appendix section of this research summarize the effect of students social backgrounds on their ability to socialize in the learning environment. All sig. values are greater than 0.05 and this supports the suggestion that students social backgrounds significantly influence their ability to socialize in the learning environment (Schaub and Tokar 309).

Influence of Independent Variables on Academic Choice

Tables 21 to 25 in the Appendix section of this research summarize the ANOVA results of the relationship between students social backgrounds and their academic choices. All the sig. values are greater than 0.05 and this verifies the conclusions of previous research studies that relate social factors students academic choices.

Influence of Independent Variables on Personal Perception

Tables 26 to 30 in the Appendix section of this research provide the sig. values for the relationship between social factors and personal perception. All Sig. values in the five tables above are greater than 0.05 and this supports the suggestion that diverse social factors influence students overall satisfaction (Sakthivel, Rajendran, and Raju 581).

Conclusion

A survey targeting 20 participants was used to collect the perception of students regarding their academic performance variables. An analysis of variance was performed to identify the relationship between students social factors (independent variables) and their academic performance (dependent variables).

The findings indicate that students social backgrounds significantly influence their school performance. Previous research studies have presented similar results (Zhao and Gianzhough 121). Further research should focus on investigating the level of significance for each of the selected variable.

Works Cited

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Appendix

Table 1: Influence of Gender on Career Focus

Table 2: Influence of Age on Career Focus

Table 3: Influence of Major College on Career Focus

Table 4: Influence of Classification on Career Focus

Table 5: Influence of College Generation on Career Focus

Table 6: Influence of Gender on Academic Performance

Table 7: Analysis of Variance: Influence of Age on Academic Performance