Relationship between Study Habits and Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students

: The objective of the present study was to find out the correlation between study habits and academic achievement of secondary school students in relation to gender. As the study intents to investigate the relationship between reading habits and educational attainment, a Correlational design was used. A sample of 100 middle school students were taken, each of which 50 boys and 50 girls studying in class 10 th of Sambalpur district affiliated by Board of Secondary Education, Odisha were selected by using stratified random sampling technique. The Study Habits Inventory and the academic score card associated with the students’ last annual examination were used to collect data. The Pearson Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation used to analyze the obtained data reveled that i) there was a high positive correlation between the study habits and academic achievement students studying in secondary schools; ii) there was a high positive correlation found between study habits and academic achievement of boys’ stu dents studying in secondary schools; iii) there was a high positive correlation existed between study habits and academic achievement of girls’ students studying in secondary schools. This implies that good study habit is positively related in enhancing the academic achievement of both boys and girls at secondary level.


The Background
Study habits or reading habits significantly contribute in the development of cognitive and affective capacities of the human beings (Rabia, Mubarak, Tallat, & Nasir, 2017) as it is stated that study habits not only constitute cognitive processes such as, thinking, memory, comprehension but also associated with non-cognitive/affective abilities (Rosenberg, Nelson, & Vivekananthan, 1968). Good study habits (Higginbotham, 1999) determine high academic performance (Issa, Aliyu, Akangbe, & Adedeji, 2012;Kaur & Pathania, 2015) of the learners greatly because of the interconnection of study habits with scholastic achievement. Paraphrasing Azikiwe definition it is said that, reading habits as an adopted way as well as a method in which a learner outlines reading strategies to gain mastery over the subject after classroom learning (Azikiwe, 1998). Learning habits make students to manifest different experiences regardless of gender, which in turn affects changes in their behavior, their motivational levels, growth of mental, physical, interpretive skills, as well as values and beliefs (Bhan & Gupta, 2010;Ogbodo, 2010;. Further, study habits are considered as an important predictor of academic success irrespective of all categorical biasness and gender differences in one hand (Christian, 1983;Richards, Richards, & Sheridan, 1999) on the other land it enables the learners to think, evaluate, judge, analyze, imagine and solve daily life problems in a more radical way (Deavers, Solity, & Kerfoot, 2000;Vandamme, Meskens, & Superby, 2005). Moreover, both study habits and academic performance act as an evaluative indicator to improve the quality of education at all levels (Lawrence, 2014). However, few researchers have examined factors affecting study habits and outlined several factors such as, length of sleeping and hours of studying without distraction by Rogaten, Moneta, and Spada (2013); Kelly, Kelly, and Clanton (2001) peer groups interaction and healthy competition by Yusuf, Sarwar, and Ranjha (2011) parental involvement and socio-economic status by Farooq, Chaudhry, Shafiq, and Berhanu (2011); Barnard (2004); Shumow and Lomax (2002); Eamon (2005) carrier aspirations by Adeninyi (2011) and many other factors as well.

Rationale of the Study
Meta-analysis result revealed that plethora of studies have been conducted ubiquitously to examine the correlation between reading habits and educational attainment of learners at various levels of education and concluded the result that a significant positive correlation exists between reading habits and academic achievement (Alavi, Lesani, & Mahdavinia, 2017;Arora, 2016;Jafari, Anghaei, & Khatony, 2019;John, Bulus, & Tangsom, 2020;Kaur & Pathania, 2015;Looyeh, Masoule, Chehrzad, & Leili, 2017;Numan & Hasan, 2017;Premlaxmi, 2012;Rabia et al., 2017;Sasi & Anju, 2020;Siahi & Maiyo, 2015), whereas others found no significant relationship (Lawrence, 2014;Nonis & Hudson, 2010) some also found significant difference (Rabia et al., 2017;Vasu & Venkatarathanam, 2017) while some others found no significant difference (Bhan & Gupta, 2010;Gudaganavar & Halayannavar, 2014) further, some researchers used study habits as a predictor to enhance academic performance (Allen, Lerner, & Hinrichsen, 1972;Broni & Hogrey, 2010;Crede & Kuncel, 2008;Numan & Hasan, 2017;Robres, Andraze, Ortega, & Ramajo, 2021). In the light of the present reviews, the researcher found that academic achievement is being highly simulated by learners' reading habits. Further, the crucial role of study habits and its impact, and effects on academic performance have been sought by various researchers throughout their research findings particularly at primary and higher levels of education. As secondary stage is a period of transaction for students, they need proper care and attention to develop their learning efficiency along with positive habits formation towards study. In addition, a small number of researches (Lawrence, 2014;Premlaxmi, 2012;Siahi & Maiyo, 2015) have been conducted in relation to reading habits and educational achievement of students particularly at middle school levels. For which the present study has been designed to study the relationship between study habits and academic achievement of secondary school students.

Statement of the Problem
The present study was proposed to seek the answer of the following questions: 1. Is there any significant relationship exist between study habits and academic achievement of government secondary school students? 2. Is there any significant relationship exists between study habits and academic achievement of boys' students studying in government secondary schools? 3. Is there any significant relationship exist between study habits and academic achievement of girls' students studying in government secondary schools?

Variables of the Study
In this research two variables were taken into account i.e., study habits and academic achievement to examine their relationship with reference to secondary school students, where study habits and academic achievement were taken as independent and dependent variables respectively.

Objectives of the Study
1. To study the correlation between study habits and academic achievement of government secondary school students. 2. To study the correlation between study habits and academic achievement of boys' students studying in government secondary school. 3. To study the correlation between study habits and academic achievements of girls' students studying in secondary schools.

Hypotheses of the Study
1. There is no significant correlation between study habits and academic achievement of students studying in government secondary school. 2. There is no significant correlation between study habits and academic achievement of boys' students studying in government secondary school. 3. There is no significant correlation between study habits and academic achievement of girls' students studying in government secondary school.
1.6. Delimitations of the Study 1. The study was delimited to 10 th grade students studying in government secondary schools affiliated by Board of Secondary Education, Odisha. 2. The study was also delimited to secondary schools located in Sambalpur district. 3. The study was delimited to correlational method as the main objective is to investigate the correlation between study habits and academic achievement. 4. The study was also delimited to some dimensions of study habits such as, physical condition, reading ability, learning motivation, memory, taking examination and health of the secondary school students.

Design
Since the objective of the study was to examine the correlation between study habits and academic achievement of government secondary school students, the researcher used a correlational design to measure the relationship between two mentioned variables.

Population and Sample
All the 10 th grade students studying in government secondary schools of Sambalpur district affiliated by Board of Secondary Education, Odisha constituted the population of the study. A sample of 100 secondary school students studying in various secondary schools of Sambalpur district were selected randomly. Out of 100, 20 students each including 10 boys and 10 girls from five schools were taken as sample.

Instrument Used
In this study the investigator adopted one standardized study habits inventory developed and standardized by Palsane and Sharma (1989). The major areas in this inventory cover the reading habits, learning techniques, memory, time schedule, physical conditions, examination and evaluation dimensions of study habits. The reliability and validity of this tool was found to be 0.88 and 0.83 respectively.

Procedure of Data Collection
To collect relevant data, the researcher personally visited all the selected government secondary schools with duly signed written permission of the concerned authority and met the headmasters/headmistress of the schools and took their permission. Then the researcher visited to the class of 10 th grade students, prior to administering the tool, the participants were made sure regarding instructions of the tool properly and asked them to fill up all items correctly. The investigator also noted down all the academic scores of the students from the school record which was considered as important part of this study. After collecting all the required data, the researcher conveyed a deep gratitude and thanks to all the participants and teachers.

Statistican Techniques Used
In the light of the stated objectives and design of the study, the Pearson's Product Moment coefficient of correlation was used by the investigator to show correlation between study habits and academic achievements of government secondary school students.

The Results
As the main objective of the study was to examine the relationship between Study Habits and Academic Achievement of Secondary school students, Pearson's product moment Correlation method was used to analyze the data and interpret the results.  As can be seen in Table 1 and Figure 1 that the correlation between study habits and academic achievement of government secondary school student was 0.96 which is positive and significant at 0.01 level against df 98. It shows that study habits and academic achievement of government secondary school students were positively and significantly correlated. Thus, the null hypothesis that there is no significant correlation between study habits and academic achievement of secondary school students was rejected. It may, therefore, be said that the study habits and academic achievement of Govt secondary   Correlation of study habits and academic achievement of boy students studying in government secondary school.
From Table 2 and Figure 2, it was found that the correlation coefficient between study habits and academic achievement of boys' students studying in government secondary school is 0.96 which is positive and significant at 0.01 level with df 48. It reflects that study habits and academic achievement of boys were positively and significantly correlated. Therefore, the null hypothesis that there is no significant correlation between study habits and academic achievement of boys' students studying in government secondary schools was rejected. It may, therefore, be said that study habits and academic achievement of government secondary school boys' students were found to be strongly related. That is, higher the study habits, higher is likely to be the academic achievement of students.  Correlation of study habits and academic achievement of girl students studying in government secondary schools.
As can be seen from Table 3 and Figure 3, it is evident that the correlation coefficient between study habits and academic achievement of Girls' students studying in secondary school was 0.98 which is positive and significant at 0.01 level with df = 48. It reflects that study habits and academic achievement were positively and significantly correlated. Thus, the null hypothesis that there is no significant correlation between study habits and academic achievement of girls' studying in secondary school was rejected. Further the correlation coefficient between study habits and academic achievement of girls' students were 0.98 which is little higher than the correlation coefficient of boys which is 0.96. It may, therefore, be said that girls' students had better study habits and they were found to be high achiever than their counterparts boys' students in terms of academic performance.

Main Findings
1. There exists a positive correlation between the study habits and academic achievement of students studying in government secondary schools of Sambalpur district. 2. There exists a positive correlation between the study habits and academic achievement of boys' students studying in government secondary schools of Sambalpur district. 3. There exists a positive correlation between the study habits and academic achievement of girls' students studying in government secondary schools of Sambalpur district. 4. The girls' students studying in government secondary schools of Sambalpur district were found to have better study habits than their counterpart boys. 5. The girl students were found be to better academic achiever then the boys students studying in government secondary schools of Sambalpur district.

Discussion of Results
The findings revealed that a very high positive correlation was found between study habits and academic achievement of students studying in Govt secondary schools of Sambalpur district, which emerged to support earlier findings of Premlaxmi (2012); Kaur and Pathania (2015); Siahi and Maiyo (2015); Arora (2016) John et al. (2020) and Sasi and Anju (2020). On the other hand, the results of Contemporary Research in Education andEnglish Language Teaching ISSN: 2641-0230 Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 1-9, 2022 DOI: 10.55214/26410230.v4i1.187 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate this study did not match with the findings of Nonis and Hudson (2010); Lawrence (2014); Silverrajoo and Hassan (2018), since they found no significant relationship between reading habits and academic performance. Moreover, the present study revealed that girls' students were performed better than their counterpart boys' students in relation to academic achievement shown to be matched with the findings of Aluja and Blanch (2004); Numan and Hasan (2017); Vasu and Venkatarathanam (2017); Jafari et al. (2019) and Jena and Jena (2020), but didn't match with the findings of Krusid, Tanveer, and Qasmi (2012) andGudaganavar and Halayannavar (2014) who found that boys' academic achievement scores were higher than girls. Furthermore, the present study showed that girls' students who studied in Government secondary schools had better study habits than boys' students is found to be similar with the findings of Singh (2011); Numan and Hasan (2017); Vasu and Venkatarathanam (2017); Jafari et al. (2019). However, the findings of the present study were matched as well as differed from the findings of other researchers because many other dimensions of study habits such as "planning", "note making preparation and revision", "motivation and interest", "concentration and clarity", "academic neuroticism", "low self-concept", and many more factors are yet not to be studied fully.

Educational Implications
1. The study may help both teachers and parents to make students aware about the importance of study habits to gain academic integrity. 2. The study may help teachers to enhance various motivational factors with concern to study habits and academic activities. 3. The study may help the policy makers to establish various mechanism to collect and utilize research finding for the improvement of reading habits among students at all levels of education. 4. The study may help the curriculum framers to make reading habits to be an integral part of the syllabus by which students' interest towards book reading may be strengthened. 5. The study may help the future researcher to undertake more researches by predicting other variables which directly or indirectly affect school performance of students. 6. It is recommended that, the govt should organize various study habits related counseling programs as a means to redesign students' study habits style. 7. It is further recommended that boys students study habits should be enhanced at secondary levels as it is found comparatively low than the girls' students. 8.
All students should be motivated to develop a strong sense of reading habits to refine their knowledge time to time.

Suggestions for Further Researches
1. The present study was only conducted in Govt secondary schools. Thus, it can be proposed that similar kind of studies may be conducted in other settings like private schools, government school in rural areas by taking large sample.
2. The present study was only confined to two variables i.e., study habits and academic achievement but variables like stress, motivation, school climate, academic procrastination, mental health, adjustment, personality, etc. can also be used to get more in-depth results.
3. Ex-post research or causal comparative study can also be undertaken to compare the study habits and academic achievement of students at primary, secondary and higher levels. 4. Experimental and descriptive studies can also be conducted on various dimensions of study habits and academic achievement. 5. The study can be extending its scope to undertake qualitative as well as mixed method research to investigate various predictors and the pattern of study habits in more detailed.
6. The study can be further extended to districts, states and countries for analyzing the pattern of study habits globally and generalizing the results with greater inference.