Study Habits, Self-Esteem, and Academic Achievement among Public and Private Secondary School Students in Bangladesh

Studies on academic achievement worldwide are sporadic, focusing on variables more or less have been taken by the researchers, and provided knowledge. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine how the school effect influences secondary school students' academic achievements by two important significant (study habits and self-esteem). With a covenient sampling method, 400 students from eight secondary schools in Bangladesh were selected for the study. Though the students were equally divided regarding gender (Boys, 200; Girls, 200), they were different regarding school types (Public, 188; Private, 212). Their ages range from 14 to 17, with an average of 14.8. They provided responses on two Bangla version scales: Study Habit Scale and Self-Esteem Scale. Academic achievement was significantly positively correlated with both study habits (r=0.268, p<0.01) and self-esteem (r=0.291, p<0.01). Two predictors of the study were also correlated with each other (r=0.283, p<0.01). Public and private school students were not varied significantly in studying habits and academic achievement, but they were significantly different in self-esteem. The study habits and self-esteem jointly explained 12.3% for public school students' academic achievement while it explained 7.5% variance for the private school students. The discussion implies that how students' study habits and self-esteem facilitate their academic achievement. Further studies will reflect more factors influencing academic achievement.