Determine the effect of conduct disorder on students’ academic performance and their correlation: case study of kamukunji and olympic secondary schools, Nairobi, Kenya

Conduct Disorder (CD) is a behavioral emotional mental disorder associated with a host of negative health, academic and social outcomes among adolescents. They include among others, unwanted pregnancies, bullying, threatening other students, poor school attendance and truancy. Several studies have found other behaviors exhibited by students such as inability or unwillingness to do assigned class work or homework, disrespect for teachers and other learners and poor academic performance suggestive of CD. The serious disruption of school programs, students’ poor academic performance and the emotional agony of the affected parents warrants effective assessment and treatment. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of conduct disorder on students’ academic performance and their correlation. The study adopted a cross sectional study design. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the study participants. A total of 611 respondents were sampled from a total population of 840 from the two study sites. Data was collected through administration of a Social Demographic Questionnaire (SDQ) and a standardized conduct disorder scale (CDS) while academic performance was measured using end-of-term one, two and term three examination results. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21 and presented in tables, figures and descriptive statistics. The key findings of the study ware; there was no statistical significant association between CD and academic achievement (p=0.397). The statistical association between CD and level of academic performance had a marginal satisfactory academic performance (10.4%) as compared to students with no CD (10.0%). This difference was statistically significant (p=0.022). The association of the severity of CD and academic performance did not have any statistical significance (p=0.615). Based on the findings, the study recommends further investigation to better understand the link between intelligence and the occurrence of externalizing disorders (CD) and future achievements. Capacity building of principals and teachers to be able to identify CD tendencies among the students. The study further prescribes effective treatment for CD in order to help curb the emergence of CD among the students so as to improve their academic performance while easing the burden of disease to the parents of the affected adolescents, the school and the community.