Abstract

This study examined the relationship between career guidance and academic motivation among senior secondary school students in Rivers State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study examined the relationship between educational career guidance, vocational career guidance, personal-social career guidance and students' academic motivation. The study adopted a correlational survey design. The population comprised 118,000 senior secondary school students in public secondary schools in Rivers State, while a sample of 576 students was used for the study. Data were collected using the Career Guidance and Academic Motivation Questionnaire (CGAMQ). The instrument was subjected to test-retest reliability, yielding coefficients of 0.88 for the career guidance section and 0.90 for the academic motivation section. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed positive relationships between educational career guidance and academic motivation (r = 0.641, p < 0.05), vocational career guidance and academic motivation (r = 0.598, p < 0.05), and personal-social career guidance and academic motivation (r = 0.623, p < 0.05). The study concluded that the provision of appropriate career guidance services is associated with students' academic motivation. It was recommended that schools should strengthen educational, vocational and personal-social guidance services to help students develop clearer academic and career directions.