The Impact of Orphanage Home on Child Personality Development in Nigeria
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This study was conducted with the following objectives:
- To find out the positive and negative impact of orphanage home on the child’s personality development.
- To determine the effect of orphanage home on child’s personality development.
- To find out the morale and attitude of children raised in orphanage home.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter reviews the literature on the impact of orphanage home on the child’s personality development. It discusses issues arising from the topic of interest as viewed from different perspectives, with a view of giving a theoretical and empirical foundation to the study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Ogochukwu U and E. O. Egolum (2016) in their study investigated the effect of teacher factor on the achievement of students in basic science. Two Orphans exist in every age and in all civilizations. According to the joint report of UNICEF, HIV/AIDS and Development (2002), about 1.7 billion children are orphans worldwide. Out of this number, Asia contributes 6.5% orphans and Africa leads with 11.9% orphans. China have about 573,000 orphans below 28 years old (Orphan report), and an estimated 650,000 children are in Russian orphanages.
A large number of studies have been conducted on the effect of environmental factors on the personality development of children and adults. Extensive literature is also available on the fundamentals of the evolution of the personality concept, its various dimensions and their origin. Eminent workers in the field of psychology have contributed their views and theories related to the development of the personality during human life span, their measurement and growth, their possible effect on human behavior and psychological and social implications of the different desirable and undesirable personality traits.
A vast majority of children live with their parents in familial environment. Another group comprising a large number of the less fortunate, who have no families, do not have this privilege. This is likely to affect the various aspects of their personality. Maternal deprivation has been found as a cause of conditions as diverse as mental sub-normality, delinquency, depression, dwarfism, acute distress and affectionless psychopathy (Ainsworth, 1962; Bowlby, 1951). It could, therefore be speculated that the personality development of the deprived children would not be the same as that of the CIF. To bring these deprived children into the mainstream of society, it is necessary to identify and evaluate their personality with a view to create some essential modifications in their living environment for their healthy growth. These children can then become socially responsive, worthy citizens. Orphans, who have lost their parents by death at a young age and are required to live in orphanages and the Commercial Sex Workers’ (CSWs’) children (with single parent – the mother) are examples of the less fortunate children. Available references show that basic environmental differences in their upbringing are likely to result in differential development of distinctive personality traits among them.
DEFINITION OF AN ORPHAN
A child who is below 18 years of age and who has lost one or both parents may be defined as an orphan (George, 2011). Maternal orphan is referred to a child who has lost their mother and paternal orphan is referred to a child who has lost their father. Social orphans are children who are living without parents because of abandonment or because their parents gave them up as a result of poverty, alcoholism or imprisonment, etc (Dillon, 2008).
The children who have lost their parents are most vulnerable, because they do not have the emotional and physical maturity to address their psychological trauma associated with parental loss. In the society, orphan children can be considered to be at more risk than average children (Subbarao and Coury, 2004).Psychological development of a child in the family the family is one of the main socializing institutions of the society. Within the family, the child appropriates the social norms and values, and becomes capable of having relations with the other members of the society. Culture represents one of the important factors of the personality modelling. The cultural features of a society generate certain distinctive features in the children’s socialization. Psychologists agree that children with secure attachments to their parents have better chances to develop into happy, successful, and well-adjusted adults. Parents encourage their children to investigate the world, manipulate objects, and explore physical relationships. This helps children to properly develop physically and emotionally by Chan et al. (2006) on psychiatric disorders among children living in orphanages to examine the problems of children in orphanages. An orphanage for young women in Srinagar was surveyed by psychiatrists using DSM-IV guidelines to evaluate children for psychopathology. Children were in the age group of 5 to 12 years. Post stress traumatic disorder (PSTD) was the commonest psychiatric disorder (40.62%) easily attributable to the prevailing mass trauma state of almost two decades. The next commonest diagnoses were major depressive disorder (MDD) with 25% and conversion disorder with 12.5%. The report says that there is a general agreement among researchers that children placed in special home settings at a young age and for long periods of time are at an increased rate of developing serious psychopathology later in life. Rutter and Sandberg (1992) were of the opinion that early behavioural disturbance was cited as one of the strongest predictors of later problems, including psychological difficulties, involvement in crime and antisocial behaviour.
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 find out the impact of orphanage home on the child’s personal development using the Kaduna orphanage home as our case study.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
Primary source and
Secondary source
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.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information regarding the impact of orphanage homes on the child’s personality development. One hundred (100) orphans and their teachers were selected from the Kaduna orphanage home and were selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
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 reiterate that the objective of this study was the impact of orphanage home on the child’s personal development.
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 evaluating the impact of orphanage home on the child’s personal development
SUMMARY
This study was undertaken to examine the impact of orphanage home on the child’s personal development. The study opened with chapter one where the statement of the problem was clearly defined. The study objectives and research hypotheses were defined and formulated respectively. The study reviewed related and relevant literatures. The chapter two gave the conceptual framework, empirical and theoretical studies. The third chapter described the methodology employed by the researcher in collecting both the primary and the secondary data. The research method employed here is the descriptive survey method. The study analyzed and presented the data collected in tables and the hypotheses were tested using the chi square while the fifth chapter gives the study summary and conclusion.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The children who have lost their parents are most vulnerable, because they do not have the emotional and physical maturity to address their psychological trauma associated with parental loss. In the society, orphan children can be considered to be at more risk than average children (Subbarao and Coury, 2004).Psychological development of a child in the family The family is one of the main socializing institutions of the society. Within the family, the child appropriates the social norms and values, and becomes capable of having relations with the other members of the society. Culture represents one of the important factors of the personality modeling. The cultural features of a society generate certain distinctive features in the children’s socialization. In this work we found out that there is a positive impact of orphanage home on the child’s personality development and that morale and attitude acquired by children raised in the orphanage home is positive.
REFERENCES
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