Family Instability and Juvenile Delinquency
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
General Objective
To establish the relationship between family instability and deviance in children
Specific Objectives
- To determine the relationship that exists between divorce/separation and deviance in children.
- To demonstrate the relationship between parents’ attitude toward their children and delinquency.
- To find out if peer influence engenders juvenile delinquency.
- To find out if family size causes deviance in children.
- To make policy recommendations on how to combat deviance in children
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Family socio economic status is based on family income, parental occupation and societal values in the community. The seeming undependability of our families to curb the menace of delinquency is not uncommented with the unprecedented global inflation that has had alarming influence on families, resulting in near break down of family ties. This is generally seen in the negative effect this has on the adolescent members of families who are mostly found in senior classes of our secondary schools. Family socio-economic status affects parents ability to send their children to school and how well these children performance in school. According to Uche (1994) children from high parent with adequate income, good occupation and high status are likely provided with huge quality private education from nursery up to university level. Given this opportunity, it is likely that such children will be less delinquent than their counterpart from lower socio economic background. However from an empirical study by Coughin and Vuchimah (1996), there is a relationship between family socioeconomic status and juvenile delinquency. Female secondary school students tend to act out as a result of low level of support from their mother while boys tend to act out as a result of low level parental mentoring; however the study concludes that family structure is not a predictor of juvenile delinquency, low parental monitoring did seem to predict higher drug use, Dishon and Loeber (1985). In another study on child rearing style and students’ dishonest behavior by Ajake, Isangedighi and Bisong (2008), child rearing style is a function of family socio economic status. Significant difference exist between respondents from autocratic child rearing family and those from democratic homes in lying, stealing and truancy, in each case autocratically reared subjects are more vulnerable to delinquency. Again a significant difference exist between subjects reared under democratic child rearing style and their counterpart reared under the laissez-faire rearing style in lying, stealing and truancy. In each case, those who are brought under the laissez-faire families are the more vulnerable. In a study carried out in Nigeria aimed at determining the extent to which parents occupational status influences the educational influences the educational attainment of children, Ojo (1987) found out that sixty percent of 1,327 university students randomly drawn for the study were children of farmers (socio-economically low), 92% were drawn from parents in the senior staff category, 17% were children of traders while 13 % of the students were children of junior staff. His finding was contrary to miner (1986) and Abernethy (1986). He found out that delinquent behavior was rather exhibited by children from middle class families or high socio-economic group. Weis (1982) in her study of ethnicity, gender and socio-economic status: pattern of access in Ghanaian secondary school found out that greater percentage of delinquent behavior in school is associated with children from rich homes since they are the majority in schools, on the other hand delinquent behavior in school is associated with student from poor homes as a result of the spillover from the society where they constitute a larger percentage.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to critically analyze the topic, parental background and delinquency among youth.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain and critically analyze the subject family instability and juvenile delinquency.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing delinquency among youth.
Summary
This study was on family instability and juvenile delinquency. Five objectives were raised which included: To determine the relationship that exists between divorce/separation and deviance in children, to demonstrate the relationship between parents’ attitude toward their children and delinquency, to find out if peer influence engenders juvenile delinquency, to find out if family size causes deviance in children, to make policy recommendations on how to combat deviance in children
Conclusion
It is generally observed that parents who are not formally educated want their children to be educated. With this desire, they spend time in instilling discipline into their children and wards. They have time to monitor and correct their children when they seem to go the wrong way, and their children are less involved in anti-social activities. On the contrary, the highly educated ones spend more time working in offices and establishment and have little time for their children. Children of uneducated parents are afraid of falling into trap of anti-crime agents, knowing their parents may not have the means to get them out of trouble. Thus they are better behaved than their counterparts from highly educated background. Anti-social behavior among students is as a result of their failure to achieve academically. Academic failure is noted to be more prevalent among students from uneducated homes than those from illiterate homes. Thus the level/rate of delinquency among children of elites is lower than their counterpart from illiterate parents. These parents send their children to privileged schools that are less violent and less aggressive. Thus aggressive behavior, truancy, pilfering etc are more associated with children from less educated homes. Adolescents sail through the stage with minimal disruptions. It is a stage that must be handled with care or else, the battle would be lost.
Recommendation
The influence of age, family warmth and school connectedness cannot be overemphasized when adolescent delinquent behavior is being addressed. The family has got a very important role to play at ensuring that the adolescent does not go astray. Parents should realize that the task ahead of them in nurturing an adolescent into a decent adult. But with determination and commitment, the adolescent would come out as desirable. Also, the teachers in the school are not left out in the battle against delinquency as it is also a source of concern to the school when adolescents engage in activities that are not expected of adolescents. Therefore, there should be a combined effort from parents, teachers, counseling psychologists and school counselors at ensuring that the
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