ABSTRACT
This project work focuses on the
effects of child abuse on students’ academic performance. The study attempts to
unravel the causes, effects and remedies to child abuse among secondary school
students. It was carried out in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State. A
sample of 100 was randomly drawn from selected secondary schools in the local
government and questionnaires were administered to the respondents. The mean
percentage test, which was adopted in the study’s analysis, indicated that
excessive battering of a child by parents/teacher/guidance; broken homes, child
hawking before and after school and unconducive learning environment are all
causes of child abuse. Also, it was found that child abuse negatively affects
child’s school performance; such abused children are vulnerable to early
pregnancy. Ill treatment as well causes permanent and life long trauma, thereby
making children develop low cognition to school subjects. The preaching of good
morals by religious leaders to parents and guardians was part of the
recommendations made in this study. Also, melting out punishment in form of
fine on erring parents/guidance especially those forcing their children to
hawk, and prevention from bad for peer influence will help eliminate or reduce
to the barest minimum the incidence of child abuse among secondary school
students.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title
Page………………………………………………………………..ii
Certification………………………………………………………..……iii
Dedication…………………………………………………….…………iv
Acknowledgement………………………………………………………..v
Table of Contents……………………………………..…………….…….vi
Abstract……………………………………………………………………ix
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
of the Study…………………………………..………………1
1.2 Statement
of the Problem……………………………..……..………..……6
1.3 Purpose
of Study…………………………………….………....…….…….7
1.4 Research
Questions…………………………………………………………8
1.5 Significance
of Study………………………………..…….………………..9
1.6 Scope
of Study…………………………………….……………………..….9
1.7 Definition
of Terms…………………………………………………………9
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 The
Concept of Child Abuse…………..………………………………….11
2.2 The
Causes of Child Abuse…………………….…………………………12
2.3 The
Effect of Child Abuse on Students Academic………………….……22
2.4 Factors
Affecting the Consequences of Child abuse and Neglect….……26
2.5 Theoretical Orientations towards Child Abuse
as it affect Academic Performance…………………………………………….34
2.6 Summary
of the Literature……..……………………………………….…41
CHAPTER THREE
METHOD OF STUDY
3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………..………….43
3.2 Research
Design……………………….………………….......……………43
3.3 Population
of Study……………………………………………...…….…...43
3.4 Sample
and sampling procedure……………………………..…………….43
3.5 Research
Instrument ………………………………………….…………...44
3.6 Validation
of research instrument………………………………………….45
3.7 Administration
of research instrument…………………………………….45
3.8 Data
Analysis Technique..………………………………..……………..…46
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION & DISCUSSION
4.1 Data
presentation…………………………………………………….……47
4.2 Analysis
of research questions……………………..…………………..…48
4.3 Discussion………………………………………..…….…………………54
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary
of Findings…………………………………………………….56
5.2 Conclusion……………………………………………………………..…58
5.3 Recommendations……………………..……………………………..……58
References…………………………………………………………………61
Appendix (Questionnaire)…………………………………………………66
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Child abuse and neglect are fastly
becoming universal phenomena in the current world societies despite the fact
the child’s rights are being recognized and even to some extent, protected by
legislations and constitutions in many countries of the world. Childhood abuse
potentially has major economic implications for Nigerian schools and for their
students. Even conservative estimates suggest that at least 8 percent of U.S.
children experience sexual abuse before age 18, while 17 percent experience
physical abuse and 18 percent experience physical neglect (Flisher, Kramer,
Hoven, & Greenwald, 2007). Childhood maltreatment, and aversive parenting
practices, in general, has the potential to delay the academic progress of
students (Shonk & Cicchetti, 2001). It therefore has the potential to undermine schools’
ability to satisfy standards of school progress entailed in the No Child Left
Behind legislation (U.S. Department of
Education, 2005),
putting them at risk for loss of federal funding. It also has the potential to
adversely affect students' economic outcomes in adulthood, via its impact on
achievement in middle and high school (Cawley, Heckman, &
Vytlacil, 2001).
Child abuse has been defined by the
African network for the prevention and protection against child Abuse and
Neglect (ANPPCAN) as the intentional and unintentional acts which endanger the
physical, health, emotional, moral and the educational welfare of the child.
Hopper (2004) also described child abuse as any act of maltreatment or
subjection that endangers a child’s physical, emotional and health development.
Gelles, (2007) affirmed that child
abuse include not only physical assault but also malnourishment, abandonment,
neglect, emotional abuse and sexual abuse.
According to Mba (2002), prominent
form of child abuse in Nigeria are child battering, child labour, child
abandonment, neglect, teenage prostitution, early marriage and forced marriage.
Kolander (2000) stated that emotional and sexual abuses are highly noticeable
in Nigeria. Oji (2006) observed that babies born by teenage mothers in Nigeria
were 625,024 as at the reporting time.
According to Walsh (2005), unwanted
pregnancy has been identified to be a major cause of child abuse in Nigeria.
Many abused children were unwanted in the first place and turned out to be a
severe burden on their emotionally immature or impoverished parents. Odey
(2003) stated that children from poor homes are more vulnerable to abuse and
Todd,(2004) in his support said that Nigeria, which is are known corrupt
nation in Africa is heading towards a dangerous poverty where her teeming
population does not have enough food for healthy living. Oluwole (2002) equally
lamented when analyzing the situation of children which are being used for
house helps. Child labour is the major obstacles to the achievement of
education for all (EFA) and this result into a setback on the achievement of
the world target of universal primary education by 2015.
According to Onye (2004), child abuse
is an evidence of poverty. Aderinto and Okunola (2008) equally recorded that
some children reported that they were pushed into street hawking for
maintenance needs of the family. That means that they are the breadwinners of
their various families at their early age. It is a common sight in major parks
and streets in Nigeria to see children of school age between 6-16 years as
bus/taxi mates, hawking wares, pushing trucks for money or begging for money when
they are supposed to in the classroom learning in the schools. All these point
to the fact that the worst hit groups are children who are at the risk of
diseases, exploitation, neglect and violence.
Although, the potential impact of
child abuse is large, but evidence of
causal effects of maltreatment on children's longer term outcomes in school is
generally lacking. The current state of evidence for a link between childhood
maltreatment (physical and sexual abuse or neglect) and school performance is limited
to negative associations between maltreatment and school performance. On
average, children who are abused receive lower ratings of performance from
their school teachers, score lower on cognitive assessments and standardized
tests of academic achievement, obtain lower grades, and get suspended from
school and retained in grade more frequently (Erickson, Egeland, & Pianta,
2003). Abused children are also prone to difficulty in forming new
relationships with peers and adults and in adapting to norms of social behavior
(Shields, Cicchetti and Ryan, 2004). Although, these examples of negative
associations between child abuse and school performance are suggestive of
causal effects, they could be spuriously driven by unmeasured factors in
families or neighborhoods that are themselves correlated with worse academic
outcomes among children (Todd and Wolpin, 2003).
In addition, not much of the previous
evidence linking childhood maltreatment to worse school performance generalizes
well to older children in middle and high school and to children not already
identified as needing services. Evidence of the impacts of maltreatment on
academic performance in the general population of middle and high school
students is needed to establish evidence of effects on schooling attainment in
the general education population and on economic outcomes in adulthood.
Using a large dataset of U.S.
adolescent sibling pairs, this study explores effects of maltreatment—neglect,
physical aggression, and sexual abuse on adolescents’ performance in middle and
high school. First, the questions of how childhood maltreatment theoretically
could negatively affect later school performance, and of how unobserved family
background and neighborhood characteristics might influence ordinary least
squares and fixed effects regression estimates of relationships between
childhood maltreatment and later school performance, are discussed. Second,
empirical estimates from models that controlled for observable and unobservable
family and neighborhood characteristics are presented.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Grill (2009) stated that the school
can do a lot of things about child abuse since it has a way of affecting the
school system. The problem of child abuse have long been existing in Nigeria,
and have even become more even devastating to the society has whole. That
history of child abuse in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State is as
old as the persistence of the phenomenon in Nigeria itself cannot be
overemphasized. Children suffered all forms of abuse ranging from child
battering, child labour, child abandonment, neglect, teenage prostitution,
early marriage and forced marriage. And in most cases, the parents are even at
the centre of the root cause of all these social maltreatment. The school though, as an agent of
socialization portends to have a strong
and overwhelming influence on the development of the child, but observation has shown that these
essence of education could probably be
defeated if the children are made to continually
suffer the pains of child labour (Martins E.O. 2010). This study
however, centers on the extent to which the school has been involved in its
attempt to develop the child within the social context of child abuse. And It
is in the light of these, that the study attempts to unravel the major causes
of child abuse and how it affects the child’s educational performance.
1.3 Purpose
of Study
This research project has its main
objectives the problem of finding out the effect of child abuse on the academic
performance of secondary school student in Esan West Local Government Area of
Edo State. Moreover, this research study sets:
1. To examine the causes of child abuse in Esan West Local Government Area
2. To determine the effect of child abuse on child’s educational
performance in Esan West Local
Government Area
3. To examine the consequences of child
abuse on child’s academic performance.
4. To determine possible solutions to
child abuse among secondary school students.
1.4 Research Questions
In order to arrive at a
logical conclusion, questions relevant to this research will be asked, among
which are the following:-
1. What are the causes of child abuse in Esan West Local Government Area
2. To what extent does child abuse affects
child’s educational performance in Esan
West Local Government Area
3. What are the consequences of child
abuse on child’s academic performance.
4. What are the possible solutions to
child abuse among secondary school students.
1.5 Significance
of the Study
This
study is to provide parents and school administrators with an insight into how
much damage child abuse and especially hawking after school can have on the
academic development of student in general. This study is significant as the
findings will be beneficial to parents, guardians, teachers, school heads and
all other stakeholders in the educational sector, as they will be better
enlightened on the problems associated with child abuse. Such knowledge may curtail any further action
of exploiting the child especially been used as object of raising family
economy. Hawking no doubt expose the child to many social vices, thus the fact
that the study attempts to create a model for proper upbringing of the child in
the society makes it justifiable.
1.6 Delimitation/Scope
of study
The
study laid emphasis on the effect of child abuse and how it affects the
academic performance of the child using secondary schools in Esan West Local
Government Area as case study.
1.7
Definition of Terms
The
following terms are defined for the essence of this work:
1.
Child
Abuse: harsh or ill treatment melted on
any child; it could be by physical pr emotional means.
2.
Physical
Abuse: any form of corporal punishment
melted on a child by his parent, teacher or guardian.
3.
Neglect:
paying no attention, not given enough care, to leave undone what need to be
done.
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