| dc.description.abstract | Orphaned students like other students have needs to be met including quality education. A relatively low academic performance among orphans in Bondo Sub County could be attributed to some life challenges related to orphanhood. The purpose of this study was to establish the self-regulation skills as predictors of academic performance of orphaned students in secondary schools in Bondo Sub-County, Siaya County, Kenya. The research objectives were: to establish the relationship between meta-cognitive learning skills and academic performance among orphaned secondary school students, to determine the relationship between time management and academic performance among orphaned secondary school students, to find out relationship between self-efficacy beliefs and academic performance among orphaned secondary school students, and to investigate relationship between task value and academic performance among orphaned secondary school students. The research was anchored on Social Cognitive and Person Centred Theories. The study adopted concurrent triangulation research design within the mixed method approach. The target population comprised 300 orphaned students and 35 principals. A total of 300 orphaned students in secondary schools and 11 principals were selected through saturated and simple random sampling strategies respectively to form the representative sample. Students' questionnaires, document analysis and interview guide for the head teachers were the main data collection instruments. In ensuring reliability, a pilot study was carried out using 75 students and 5 head teachers from Rarieda Sub-Country who were not part of the representative sample in the study. The validity of research instrument was ensured by the university lecturers’ and supervisors’ expert judgment. A reliability coefficient of’ 0.891 was reported. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentages) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation and regression analysis) while qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. SPSS version 24 was used to conduct the analyses. Study findings revealed a significant weak (small) positive relationships between meta-cognitive learning skills and academic performance (r -e .363), self-efficacy belief and academic performance (r = .276), time management and academic performance (r = . l 76), and task value and academic performance (r = . I 22) among orphaned secondary school students in Bondo Sub-County. Results from the interviews revealed that metacognitive skills, self-• efficacy, time management, and task value are vital components of academic performances amongst orphan students in Bondo Sub-County. The study recommended that schools should equip orphans with self-regulation skills to enable them to develop proper meta-cognitive skills in the community following discharge from the learning institution. Ministry of Education and other stakeholders should understand the plight of orphans and provide them with improved services like trained counselors who would be able to provide orphaned students with appropriate counseling services in relation to self-• regulation skills. | en_US |