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HOME BACKGROUND VARIABLES AND GIRL-CHILD PREGNANCY AMONG STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Position differentiation is an important characteristic of every society in the world. Individuals and their families are arranged or grouped into social strata called classes. However, the nature and conditions of differentiation varies from one society to another. In Nigeria, the commonest type of classification is done in terms of socio-economic standing which are; upper, middle and lower classes.

Ogunlade (2015) opined that the high social-economic status parents are able to provide their young children with quality items like books and toys to encourage them in various learning activities both at home and in school. Nevertheless, across all socio-economic groups, parents face major challenges when it comes to providing the best or most effective care for their children. However, the challenges are more seriously devastating among the poor families that struggle to provide the basic needs that are necessary to sustain the family members.

There is a general believe that children from high and middle class socio-economic status parent are better exposed to good learning environment at home as a result of the provision and availability of extra learning facilities. In contrast, the belief held by most people are that children from low socio-economic status parents do not have access to extra learning facilities, hence, the opportunity to get to the top of their education ladder may not be very easy.

Ginther and Pollack (2017) maintained that the socio-economic status of a student’s parent eventually affects his participation pattern, interactions, association and above all his personality. This position is supported by Oakes (2017) who stated that socio-economic status of parents is an important predictor for academic achievement of student. Factors related to the external environment of the family, such as occupation and family income are more crucial for the overall behavior of the girl-child.

Austin (2013), in his book found no difference in parents’ income and their freshman year in college either before or after controlling the students’ high school grades, aptitude test score and college selectivity.

According to Deutsch (2004), socio- economic position is usually determined with reference to parental occupation. He explained further that in the United Kingdom, the Registrar generally classifies such occupation into five groups, starting with group one which includes doctors, politicians and university lectures, and proceeding down to managerial skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers also make up the group five. He went on to reveal that research has constantly shown that the higher the socio-economic status, the higher the mean intelligent quotient becomes. The reason for this according to Deutsch’s explanation might be that children from low socio-economic status are less likely to have the material possessions that stimulate intellectual activities such as books and constructive toys. They are also likely to hear complex verbal structures in the speech of their parents.

Stone (2015) investigations on the effects of socio-economic status of parents on pupils’ academic achievement revealed that pupils in high and average socio-economic groups perform better than those in the low socio-economic status groups. He further stated that the majority of children from high and average socio-economic background usually have access to pre-primary school education and also enjoyed the services of private teacher, which gives the children academic advantage over children from low socio-economic background.

Ibia (2002) reported that the study conducted by Ugwuoke (2017) revealed that the children from high socio-economic background status families always aspire to those highly rated profession, such as Medicine, Law, Engineering and Pharmacy. He noted that rich parents choose these courses for their children in order to maintain the status of their family. Also, the problem of parental marital status sometime contributes to the girl-child sexual attitude as well as pregnancy. Single parents were seen to be more predictive of girl-child pregnancy than intact parents. The family is primarily the potent ground for the development of a child’s foundation to meet the developmental needs, particularly when it comes to developing an appropriate sexual behavior.

Several investigations have gone beyond bivariate relationship to show that single or divorced parents are more permissive of sexual attitudes (Thornton and Camburn, 2015), lesser parental supervision and parents own dating activity. (Whitbeck, Simons and Kao 2000) helped to explain why adolescents in some single parent families are at the increase risk of pregnancy. Girl-child pregnancy is slowly and surely eating into the developmental process of Nigeria now prevalent in both the urban and rural area.

Most of these teenage girls as a result of pressure from them peers adhere to the advice or suggestions of their age mates who in turn influenced them negatively to agree to immoral, pre-marital and unprotected sex which in most cases result in pregnancy (unwanted). They get involved with naivety to avoid being shunned by their peers.

Financial constraints and low standard of living in the rural areas is totally instrumental in the rise of teenage girls’ pregnancy. In order for girls to meet their basic needs which their poor parents cannot provide, they ignorantly offer themselves to unscrupulous men for financial assistance, who lure them to

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