Students’ Cultural Background and its Impact on Attitudes and Academic Performance in Criminology

Cultural background plays an important role in shaping students' attitudes, learning experiences, and academic achievement, particularly in higher education, where learners come from diverse social, economic, and cultural environments. Understanding these influences is crucial in criminology education, as future criminal justice professionals are expected to demonstrate cultural competence, ethical values and professional responsibility. Employing a quantitative descriptive-correlational research design, data were collected from 800 BS Criminology students of HGBaquiran College using a validated questionnaire and official academic records. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis, and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the respondents had diverse cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Students demonstrated a high level of cultural values (M = 3.66, SD = 0.86), positive attitude toward criminology (M = 4.15, SD = 0.73), and very satisfactory academic performance (M = 2.18, SD = 0.42). Multiple regression analysis showed that cultural values, parents' monthly income, parents' educational attainment, parents' employment, and gender significantly influenced both students' attitudes toward criminology and their academic performance. However, ethnicity and religion were not significant predictors. Moreover, a moderate positive and statistically significant relationship was found between students' attitudes toward criminology and their academic performance (r = 0.512, p < .001). These findings underscore the importance of family support and positive cultural values in encouraging favorable learning attitudes and academic success among students. This study recommends the implementation of culturally responsive instructional practices and strengthened student support programs to enhance motivation, engagement, and academic achievement among criminology students.