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
Background of the Study…………………………………..………………1
Statement of the Problem……………………………..……..………..……6
Purpose of Study…………………………………….………....…….…….7
Research Questions…………………………………………………………8
Significance of
Study………………………………..…….………………..9
Scope of Study…………………………………….……………………..….9
Definition of
Terms…………………………………………………………9
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
The Concept of Child Abuse…………..………………………………….11
The Causes of Child Abuse…………………….…………………………12
The Effect of Child Abuse on Students
Academic………………….……22
Factors Affecting the Consequences of
Child abuse and Neglect….……26
Theoretical Orientations towards
Child Abuse as it
affect Academic Performance…………………………………………….34
Summary of the
Literature……..……………………………………….…41
CHAPTER THREE
METHOD OF STUDY
Introduction……………………………………………………..………….43
Research Design……………………….………………….......……………43
Population of Study……………………………………………...…….…...43
Sample and sampling
procedure……………………………..…………….43
Research Instrument ………………………………………….…………...44
Validation of research
instrument………………………………………….45
Administration of research
instrument…………………………………….45
Data Analysis
Technique..………………………………..……………..…46
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION & DISCUSSION
Data
presentation…………………………………………………….……47
Analysis of research
questions……………………..…………………..…48
Discussion………………………………………..…….…………………54
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of Findings…………………………………………………….56
Conclusion……………………………………………………………..…58
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 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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