Abstract:
The aim of the study was to examine the effect of home environment on the academic
achievement and personality of students. Home environment has been identified as being an
important contributing factor in child’s educational development. Very few researches have dealt
with this dimension of education in Pakistan. The population of the study comprised 8533
Intermediate science male and female students of grade 12, who appeared in the Intermediate
examination (part 1)2006, taken by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education
Rawalpindi. The sample of the study included 724 students, 410 were female and 314 were male.
Three research instruments were used for data collection. To determine the personality of
students a Five Factor personality inventory developed by Dr. Tom Buchanan (2001) was used.
The intra-familial environment as perceived by students was measured by using the Index of
Family Relations (IFR). Researcher translated these instruments into Urdu and used them after
pilot testing. A Demographic Variable Information Performa, developed by the researcher, was
used to collect information relating to the demographic variables of the study. The information
about the achievement was collected from the Result Gazette of the Board of Intermediate and
Secondary Education Rawalpindi.
Seventy null hypotheses were tested to find the effect of home environment, socio economic
status, family relations, gender, parental education, income of the family, family size, birth order
of the student and type of the family on students’ personality and achievement. Data was
analyzed by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and t-test. It was concluded from the study
that with the exception of birth order and family type, all the independent variables of the study
had a significant effect on the academic achievement of students. However students’ personality
was partially influenced by these variables.
