SEX DIFFERENCE IN THE PREVALENCE OF DYSCALCULIA AMONG PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined sex differences in the prevalence of dyscalculia disorder among public secondary school students in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta, Nigeria. Two research questions were raised, with their corresponding hypothesis formulated and tested at a 0.05 alpha significance level. This research adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population comprised ten thousand, three hundred and ninety-two (10,392) students at the 2021/2022 academic session. The multistage sampling technique was employed to select one thousand, three hundred and forty-four (1,344) respondents. The research instrument was a questionnaire titled “Dyscalculia Screening Questionnaire Among Secondary School Students” (DSQ), which was adapted from the Dyscalculia Screening Tool (DST) as developed by Adaikala and Pio (1982). The data was analysed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (t-test and one-way ANOVA). The study revealed that dyscalculia disorder was moderately prevalent among public secondary school students in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State. It was also found that there is no significant influence of sex and dyscalculia disorder among secondary school students. It is therefore recommended that psychotherapeutic intervention should be provided to secondary school students to manage the prevalence of dyscalculia among secondary school students.