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INFLUENCE OF CHILD ABUSE ON THE SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT OF PUPILS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

The level of orientation achieved by the adolescent in the society today, plays back to the kind of early care which the child received from parents, pre – school teachers and the society at large. This is because all the key ingredients of emotional intelligence such as confidence, curiosity, intentionally, self-control, relatedness, capacity to communicate and co-operateness   that determines how a child learns and relates in school and in life general are developed.

Anderson (1999), stated that, childhood is the time we learn basic skills and establish the platform for our future. Therefore, the need for achievement orientation among adolescent in our society is paramount because it is what ever orientation he or she get that affect the feeling about himself and his relationship with others. People with a high need for achievement sick out situation in which they can compete against some standard be it grades, money, or winning at a game and prove themselves successful while people with low achievement orientation tend to be motivated primarily by a desire to avoid failure as a result, they seek out easy tasks, being sure to avoid failure or seek out very difficult tasks for which failure has no negative implications, since almost anyone would fail at them.

However, the beginning of the adolescent perception of his environment is the accumulated experiences the adolescent  gathers from the infant stage to the adolescent period. This is a period the adolescent begins to see things as relative rather than absolute.

Piaget (1966) as contained in Osarenren (2000), observed that it is a period known as formal operational stage (11-15 years) the key patterns of reasoning at this stages combinational, proportional, probabilistic and correlational during this period, the adolescent reason out everything key perceive in their own way.

Bond (1989) asserted that adolescent with a background of family tension may approach schooling as unhappy and insecure, those from a culture different from that of the teacher and different from that portrayed in the learning materials may experience unusual difficulty in learning.

Some adolescents come from a home environment which provides love, understanding, an opportunity to develop individuality and a feeling of security which others do not. Quarreling parents, broken homes, child neglect, child abuse, over protection, parental domination, anxiety, hostility and destructive rivalry among siblings are likely to produce nervous tension and feelings of insecurity and consequently lead to low achievement orientation.

When the behaviour of a low achiever is compared to that of an adolescent making normal progress, it becomes obvious that there are differences in personal and social adjustment. Adolescent who are failing to achieve well are more likely to show signs of emotional and social maladjustment than their successful peers. Most adolescent with low achievement manifest some sort of maladjustment ranging in degree of mild to severe.

In the classroom, adolescent with low achievement manifest symptoms of stress in one way or the other. Often, they appear shy or restless, some seems unable to concentrate. They lack self-confidence, they become discouraged easily and tend to give up when work becomes difficult. The inability to achieve satisfactory usually means severe frustration for the adolescent when his unsuccessful attempts to achieve high make him conspicuous in a society unfavorable way, the adolescent  is hurt and ashamed. His continued lack of success with attendant frustration and feelings of insecurity bring on emotional maladjustment.

Sornson (2002), stated that, some of these adolescent easily become convinced that  they are stupid. This feeling of inadequacy is enhanced by the attitude of their classmates, their parents and their teachers. Sometimes, failure leads adolescent  to become timid, withdrawn and they frequently  day dream. Others may compensate for their feelings of inferiority by developing various forms of anti social behaivour which leads to negative self talk.

Negative statements about self originated from poor conceptualization of idea and thoughts. An individual first think of something within him before he acts. This is because a thought of an idea is first generated or conceptualized before one verbalizes or acts it. This thought might be rational or irrational, positive or negative.

The achievement orientation of an adolescent plays back at his thought process which consequently makes that adolescent make either rational or irrational statement about self which are capable of influencing his behaviour.

Hensen (1997) observed that because man has been endowed with the ability to verbalize, thinking and emotion as presented by Elis takes the forms of self talk, and this self-talk directs the individuals behaviour in either rational or irrational direction.

It is imperative however, that the handicapped who has been tagged with various adjectives like unproductive, totally dependant, second class citizen, by the society tends to direct his behaviour towards irrational direction and hence negative self concept, wrong perception of self, poor actualization, poor judgmental value of the ideal self. He makes distorted statements about self and about others. He is biased about other people’s opinion about him. On the whole, he is socially maladjusted in the society.

Nelson (1997), asserts that teachers can become more effective classroom managers by increasing their rate of contingent positive statement for appropriate  pupils behaviour and decreasing the rate of negative statements for in appropriate pupils behaviour.These in any case, lead to poor academic performance, poor and social personal adjustment and poor socio-economic status of the child when he/she becomes an adult member of the society. In many cases, child abuse has led to prostitution and sexual harassment which in turn led to unwanted pregnancies, aborting, death or early motherhood without education. For example a girl child who hawks wares on the street may end up being a prostitute and consequently contacting sexually transmitted disease such as the deadly HIV/AIDS and this may lead to premature death and cutting short of her opportunity and career in life (Nwagbo, 1998). Child abuse may be limited to the following factors: Lack of parental care, poverty, loss of parents or death of breadwinner(s) in the home, parental separation of marital divorce. Some of these factors can lead to a child being left in the hands of care-giver such as step-parents guardians etc who now mishandle the affairs of the child in the most unfortunate way or manner which contributes abuse or care-givers to the child’s social adjustment cannot be over emphasized. Due to the abuse meted on the child by those who are supposed to take care of him/her, make the child to be socially maladjusted in the immediate community or society where he/she funds him/her self. This leads to social deviations and delinquencies which are anti-social behaviours or negative norms the society abhorres and avoids.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

The increase in the incidence of child abuse in the society has been of great concern to both the government and educationsists. The issues of child abuse has been persistent in many parts of the country. The society or environment where a child is brought up is a determinant of the level of child abuse he/she is subjected to. Due to this, the society is no longer free. Child abuse has eaten the minds of many Nigerians especially parents, guardians and other care givers in the country. The problems of child abuse include street begging for parents upkeep, hawking on the streets by kids where they can easily be exposed to dangers of being knocked down by speeding vehicles. Many children who are neglected by their parents are atimes hooligans, robbers etc while the female ones go into prostitution and other related cases, such as rape, sexual harassment, drug abuse and addiction which is a deviant behaviours in the society. Other negative influence are personality problems, high rate of crimes in our society, corruption, absenteeism, truancy and dropping out of school which is prevalent among the abused and the neglected children etc. It is against this background that this study is embarked upon in order to examine the effects of child abuse on the personal social adjustment of the pupils in the primary school level and to prefer possible solution to this problem.

1.3     Purpose of the Study

This study attempts to examine the effects of child abuse on the personal social adjustments of pupils in Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State.

1.4    Research Questions

The following research questions will guide the conduct of this study.

1.  What are the causes of child abuse?

2.  What are the effects of child abuse?

3.  Is there any difference between the social adjustment of children who are abused and neglected and those who are not?

4.  Is there any difference between the social personal adjustment of male and female students?

5.  Is there any difference between the academic performance of children who are abused and neglect and those who are not?

6.  How can the problem of child abuse be solved?

1.5    Research Hypotheses

The following research hypotheses will guide the conduct of this study:

1.  There will be no significant difference between the family background of abuse children and those who are not abused.

2.  There will be no significant difference between the social adjustment of children who are abused and those who are not.

3.  There will be no significant difference between the academic performance of children who are abused and those who are not.

4.  There will be no significant difference between the abuse of children from high socio-economic home and those from the low socio-economic homes.

1.6    Significance of the Study

The importance of this research work will be that it would provide more knowledge to the masses especially, the parents or guardians on the implications of any form of child abuse and neglect on adolescents. It will also enlighten people on the different forms of abuse of children and some suggested solutions to the problems of child abuse in our society.

1.7     Scope of the Study

The study will cover the effects of child abuse on the personal social adjustment of students in secondary schools in Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State.

1.8     Limitation of the Study

The study will be limited to Surulere Local Government environs. Fund, time and sourcing of good materials would be hindrance to the timely completion of this project work.

1.9     Definition of Terms

The following terms were operational defined:

Child: A child is a person who is easily controlled due to his frail personality and dictated for by the adult members of the society.

Child Abuse: Child abuse is used in terms of child labour beyond the age of the child. For example, long hours of labour, sending the child to do some paid jobs in order to assist the family income when the child is supposed to go the school etc.

Child Neglect: Child neglect means a situation whereby the child is not given proper care of attention as being deprived of the basic comforts of life.

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