ABSTRACT
The study examined the
effect of working mothers’ career on the social adjustment of students in
selected secondary schools in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State. In
this study, some relevant and related literature reviews were carried out under
sub-headings. The descriptive research survey design was applied in the
assessment of the respondents’ opinions using the questionnaire and the
sampling technique. The sample of this study consisted of 120 (one hundred and
twenty) respondents, which represented the entire population of the study. A
total of five null hypotheses were generated and tested using the independent
t-test for hypotheses one, three and four and five respectively, while the
Pearson product moment correlational coefficient statistical tool was used in
testing hypothesis two at 0.05 level of significance. At the end of the testing
exercise, the results that were obtained indicated that:
(1)
there is a significant effect of mothers’ careers
on children’s social adjustment in school,
(2)
there is a significant relationship between
mothers’ careers and the moral development of children in the community,
(3)
social adjustment of children brought up by
working mothers differs significantly from those brought up by non-working
mothers in the community,
(4)
there is a significant difference between the
academic performance of children who are brought up by working mothers and
those brought up by non-working mothers in the community, and
(5)
there is no significant gender difference in the
social adjustment of students due to the careers of their mothers.
It is also recommended
that mothers, who are actively engaged in their work or careers, ought to
ensure that, while they carry out their various duties in order to earn money,
they should ensure that they take appropriate care of their children’s welfare
in terms of their effective education so that these children would not be left
out uneducated.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgements iv
Abstract v
Table of Contents vi
CHAPTER
ONE 1
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Background to the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 6
1.3 Purpose of the Study 7
1.4 Research
Questions 8
1.5 Research
Hypotheses 9
1.6 Significance
of the Study 10
1.7 Scope of the Study 11
1.8 Definition of Terms 11
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 13
2.1 Maternal Employment and
Nonmaternal Care during
the Early Years
of the Child 14
2.3 Impacts of Working Mothers on their Children’s Development 24
2.4 The Co-Parental Relationship and Child Development Outcomes 29
2.5 Differences between Children of Employed and
Non-employed
Mothers 31
2.6 The Mother's Sense of Well-being and Childs
Cognitive/Emotional
Adjustment 36
2.7 Gender
Based Differences in Child Rearing Due to Mothers’ Career 39
2.8 Extent
and Effects of Maternal Employment on Children’s Academic Performance and
Social Adjustment 44
2.9
Summary of the Review
48
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 50
3.1 Research
Design 50
3.2 Population of the Study 50
3.3 Sample Size and Sampling Method 50
3.4 Instrumentation 51
3.5 Procedure for Data Collection 51
3.6 Procedure for data Analysis 52
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA
ANALYSES AND INTERPRETATION
OF RESULTS 53
4.1
Introduction 53
4.2
Test of Hypotheses 53
4.3 Summary
of Findings 57
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY,
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 59
5.1 Introduction
59
5.2 Summary
of the Study 59
5.3 Conclusions
61
5.4 Recommendations
62
References 64
Appendix 72
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Home is the
point of support around which the early years of a child revolve. The central figures in the home are the
parents, especially, the mother (Adeleke, 1990). Child-bearing and
child-rearing are inseperable. The type of child-rearing practice has
tremendous impact on the entire life of the child including his/her academic,
social and psychological, even moral life on his/her entire life or career.
As Adiele (1994)
puts it, the social climate or environment in which an indjvidual finds his/her
self, to a large extent, determines his/her behavior or personality
development, parental guidance and discipline he added, usually influence the
behavior of the child. At the apex of this parental influence is the mother.
Mothers’ love
for their children is undeniable. Their feminine nature makes them wholesome,
soft, passionate and sensitive to the plight of their children and a condusive
atmosphere for problem-solving involved (Odomene, 1995).
Chukwuka (1999)
opined that in this period of economic hardship, more women (wives or mothers)
take up paid employment due to the fact that more women are exposed to the
western education and there jobs or careers take them away from their
matrimonial home and duties of taking care of their children and wards and the
proper upbringing of these children.
In effect,
children are often left in the hands and care of the hired care-giver(s) and
maids who do not possess the requisite experience to train the child and
inculcate maternal-morality and good behavior in the child. In support of this
statement, Uzor (2000), points out that children of these days lack adjustment,
because, they are mostly brought up by others instead of their mothers. He went
ahead to claim that even when these children know the right thing to do, they
fail to do them because, their learning to do good from the family (especially
from their mothers) is faulty due to mothers’ absence to direct and inculcate
the right attitude of children from cradle.
Nkemdirim (2001)
states that, for the fact that mothers are absent from their natural duties of
upbringing of the child in the right way, the resultant effect is the moral
decadence that is prevalent in the society today. A situation where children no
longer respect and observe the norms and values expected of them. Elders are no
longer cherished and respected by the youths. The youth due to lack of proper
and adequate home upbringing by their mothers, are maladjusted to the extent of
upholding negative ideas and values such as fighting, drug abuse, examination
malpractices, fraud, stealing, lying, promiscuity, disobedience to laid down
rules and regulations and indiscriminate sexual relationships both at home, at
school and general indisciplinary behaviours perpetuated by youths and the
young ones in the society who lack mothers’ care and instructions.
Ayodele (2005),
opines that, women in the contemporary society especially mothers, miss out in
their daily routine and obligations to their families including the societal
adjustment of their children, due to gainful employment either to augument the
family’s income or to empower themselves economically in the society in order
to be independent of their husbands. Anyanwu (2002) opines that most women who
work usually leave very early in the morning and come back late at night,
thereby leaving the upbringing of the child in the hands of the immature and
inexperienced househelps in the home and in the day care centres. According to
Ayo (2003, children left in the cares and upbringing of the inexperienced
househelps tend to grow up misbehaviouring and upholding the wrong tenets or
values of the society due to non-incuclation of the basic motherly care,
directions and role-modelling.
Ikeofuonye
(2000) is of the opinion that the mother-child relationship has been weakened
by the prolonged absence of the mother from the home due to routine-employment
or career opportunity. He opined that mothers who are career women or who
engage in employment spend more time at workplaces than in the homes and the
effect is lack of motherly guidance and moral counseling. Furthermore, children
grow up to become wayward, mal-adjusted and delinquent in the society.
Amaonye (2004
examined the effect of full time employment of wife, mother on husband and
children in the home. He found that mothers who are career women/wives, do not
rear, in most cases, good or well-behaved children in the community, and that
their husbands are not well taken care of due to intervention of employment or
career. Awowinfa (2005) carried out a study on the influence of working mothers
on children’s social adjustment. His finding showed that mothers’ career
interferes with their home chores and children’s upbringing. Awowinfa,
therefore concluded that full-time house wives make better homes than the
working mothers. According to him working mothers have more unstable homes,
more maladjusted children and more poor school achievement of idea than
non-working or career mothers.
Most adolescents
who are brought up by care-givers due to the absence of mothers who are in
search of golden fleece in terms of gainful employment or business, grow up to
lack etiquette and positive social adjustment (Uzodinma, 2006). No wonder, many
children these days, lack good morals and positive values that are upheld in
any given society. Most children these days have turned out to be disrespectful
to parents and elders in their communities; some of them do not even know the
cultures of their communities, not to talk of how to keep and respect them. And
the society is at the brink of collapse, because the norms and values that make
the society thick have been in constant disregard and violated due to lack of
motherly upbringing of children.
As Amakor (2005)
put it parents especially, mothers these days, do have the knowledge of child
upbringing, but lack the time and opportunities in bringing these children up
in proper ways. A situation where a mother wakes up early in the morning and
leaves for work while the child is fast asleep and returns very late at night
when the child has gone to bed, will cause most children not to even know their
mothers, not to talk of having the mother-child bonds or relationships that transpires
naturally between mother and child. Parents need to bring up their children and
wards in a proper way, teaching them to observe the laid down cultures and
traditions of the communities; instructing them to respect and value the
societal norms and values, ethics and good moral behaviours that a child needs
to imbibe in order to grow into acceptable adolescence and adulthood in the
scoiety. (Mumonye, 2003).
1.2 Statement of the Problem:
The issue of
working mothers and its effects on the social adjustment and academic
achievement of the child has been a heated up debate among Nigerians, most
especially, among the man folks. Due to the economic down-turn in the country
and the world in general, which has caused high inflationary trends and
problems, the men have failed in their bid to win bread for the family. This is
as a result of general unemployment and harsh business environment in the
country today. This in turn has caused the women to go out in search of gainful
employment in order to support the dwindling financial up-keep of the family.
According to
Alfred (2003), most mothers work these days and these has made them to leave
their children at home at the mercy of care-givers and house-helps, who often
maltreat the children and bring them up in the way devoid of society’s moral
values and positive adjustment and norms. This is the reason why few children
in Nigeria
today turn out to be area boys and wayward girls simply because they lack home
training as a result of the absence of mother-care and guidance.
For these
reasons, prostitution, disrespect to the rules and regulations governing the
society and disobedient to parents, significant others and school authorities
are the order of the day. The fact that most children have lost the opportunity
of being reared by their mothers, has lead to moral decadence and adolescents’
delinquency. This study therefore, sets out to examine the effects of mother’s
career on the children’s social adjustment.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The specific
objectives of this study among others are to:
1. Examine the effect of a working mother
towards the social adjustment of the child.
2. Assess whether mother’s career affects the
moral development of the child.
3. Find out whether non-working mothers rear
up their children better than the working mothers.
4. Examine whether there is a difference
between the academic performance of children brought up by non-working mothers
and working mothers.
5. Compare the social adjustment of children
brought up by working mothers and non-working mothers.
6. Find out whether there is difference
between the moral development of children brought up by working mothers and
those brought up by non-working mothers.
7. Profer solution to the problem of working
mothers on the social adjustment of their children.
1.4 Research
Questions
The following
research questions were raised for the conduct of this study:
1. Will mother’s career affect the social
adjustment of their children?
2. To what extent will the career of mothers
affect the moral development of their children?
3. Do non-working mothers rear better
children than the working mothers?
4. To what extent will there be any
differences between the academic performance of children brought up by
non-working mothers and those of the working mothers?
5. Is there any comparison between the social
adjustment of children brought up by working mothers and those brought up by
non-working mothers?
6. Is there any difference between the moral
development of children who are brought up by working mothers and those by the
non-working mothers?
7. To what extent will there be any solution
to the problems of working mothers on children’s social adjustment?
1.5 Research
Hypotheses
The
following research hypotheses were tested in this study:
(1) There will be no significant effect of
mother’s career on children’s social adjustment in school.
(2) There will be no significant relationship
between mother’s career and children’s moral development.
(3) There will be no significant difference
between the social adjustment of children who are brought up by working mothers
and those brought up by non-working mothers.
4. There will be no significant difference
between the academic performance of children brought up by working mothers and
those brought up by non-working mothers.
5. There will be no significant gender difference
in the social adjustment of students due to the careers of their mothers
1.6 Significance
of the Study
It is hoped that
this study will create an awareness of the difficulties that career mothers
encounter while combining the care of their family with their career or work.
It will also
determine the degree of relationship between career mothers and the influence
they have on their children’s moral development, social adjustment and academic
achievement in school.
The study when
finally completed, will determine to a great extent, the effects of career
mothers on their children’s well-being, especially, their moral development and
social adjustment in the society.
This study will
highlight the importance of the responsibilities of the mother which include:
care, love, affection and good upbringing of the child in a family setting.
The awareness
the findings and recommendations of this study will create, will therefore
enable parents, especially, mothers to know the right direction in which to
follow for proper upbringing of their children and ward in the society.
Apart from the
above benefits, this study will be a reference material to the general members
of the society, students and researchers, especially those who wish to carry
out research in related topics.
1.7 Scope of the Study
This study
covered the effect of working mothers on the social adjustment of children in
Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State.
1.8 Definition of Terms
The operational
terms were defined in this study thus:
1. Working
mother:- This means a mother who is gainfully employed or who goes out
routinely in order to engage in one business or employed work or the other.
2. Non-working
mother:- This connotes the mother who is not engaged in paid jobs or
businesses. She is a complete house wife.
3. Mother’s
career:- This refers to the career of a mother. It is the profession or
career or job a mother is involved in routinely.
4. Moral
Development:- This means the moral growth or development of an individual.
It is the upliftment of morality and ethical life of a person.
5. Social
Adjustment:- This refers to the totality of an individual’s behaviour in
his/his environment.
6. Academic
performance: This means the level of school outcomes of the students in
examinations or tests over a period of time.
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