Abstract

This study investigated some environmental and psychological factors that could predict the academic underachievement among high ability students in public secondary schools in the south-west, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive survey design of an ex-post facto type. A sample size of 300 junior secondary two students in the south-west, Nigeria was randomly selected using multi-stage sampling technique with one hundred and sixty-two (162) females and one hundred and thirty-eight (138) males. Majority of the participants fell within the ages of ten (10) and fifteen (15). Some adopted instruments were used for data collection. Eight research questions were raised to guide the study, the data were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression at 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that peer influence is the most significant predictor of academic underachievement (r=0.14) and followed by depression (r=0.13). It was evident that there was joint prediction of the psychological factors F(3,292) =4.77; R=0.05 and environmental factors (F(3,293)=3.49; R=0.04 on the academic underachievement among the high ability students. It is thus recommended that effective motivational incentives, positive peer influence and conducive home and school environments will minimise academic underachievement among the high-ability students in schools in Nigeria.