Needs Satisfaction and Academic Adjustment among Secondary School Students in Calabar Education Zone, Cross River State: Implication for Counselling

The study was aimed at examining needs satisfaction and academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone, Cross River State. The study was guided by three research question and three hypotheses. Literatures were reviewed according to the variables of the study. The study adopted a causal comparative research design. The design was adopted because of the nature of the variables under study that the researcher cannot manipulate because their effects have already occurred. The study also adopted a stratified and simple random sampling technique to select a total of 450 SS1 students from a population of 4523 in Calabar Education Zone, Cross River State. The instrument that was used for data collection was a validated questionnaire titled, ‘Needs satisfaction and academic adjustment scale’ (NSAAS). The instrument was validated by experts in measurement and Evaluation and the reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach alpha Reliability method and the coefficient of the sub scales ranged from .78 -.85. Data were collected and were analysed using Pearson product moment correlation. The result showed that there was a significant relationship between psychological, physiological and safety needs satisfaction on academic adjustment of the learner. Based on these findings, it was recommended that students should be provided with adequate food and shelter that would help them adjust adequately to their academic activities. That student’s competency should be built for the psychological needs to be satisfied in order to help them carry out their academic activities adequately. Counsellors should ensure that they help the parents of the learner to know the importance of satisfying the needs of the child so that the child can cope with the school activities.