EFFECTS OF FREQUENT DOMESTIC CONFLICTS AND VIOLENCE ON SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE NORTH EASTERN STATES OF NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

The family is made up of a group of persons; young and old and it is the basic unit of social life, it forms the link between the individual and the society. Amagon and Wakjissa (2001) opined that the family is the basic unit of social institutions;it is a system of accepted norms and a procedure for getting jobs done. They further explained that family is a type of kinship grouping which provides for the rearing of children and meeting certain human needs. The family could be nuclear, polygamous or extended, which may include uncles, cousins, grandparents, wives of sons and their children as members of one family having to do their domestic activities together. Anyakoha and Eluwa (2008) stated that members of the extended family may live in town or cities, but when they return to villages they come together as one family. They further stated that conflicts could be a common feature in some extended families or even within the nuclear family. The North-Easternstates of Nigeria is not an exception to this type of family setting.

Domestic conflict is the misunderstanding that may occur in homes among the family members as they interact with one another during their day-to-day activities.Espion (2008) defined domestic violence as the intentional use of physical abuse by one‟s spouse or partner that cause pain or injury. Gilchrist and Graham (2009) defined domestic violence as any intentional abuse of the family members. The family members could be children, spouse or any member of the family subsystems.Cumming (2006) is of the view that domestic violence includes such behaviours such as throwing objects, pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping, kicking, biting, hitting, beating, choking, threatening with words or objects such as knife or gun. Such violence abusive behaviour patterns are done by one partner against another in an intimate relationship which could be the spouse or parent and child relationship. He further explained that domestic conflicts can be identified through some acts of anxiety, depression isolation from people, withdrawal of incentives and others will want to stay closer for fears  of staying alone, while others may keep quiet by trying to ask questions and give answers that are open ended, giving rise to communication gap.

Laura (2011) stated that in many homes where domestic violence occurs, the parents are under the misconception that their children are unaware of the violence even if it has taken place in close proximity to the children. They may not witness the actual violence but they do hear the fighting, hear the screams and see the injuries. They are also traumatized by the parent‟s emotional pain and suffering after the violence has taken place and this directly or indirectly have devastating effects on their cognitive growth. According to Carpenter and Stacks (2009) Social behaviour can be defined as a behaviour directed towards a society; an accepted way of behaviour among members of a family or society. It is the general conduct of people approved and accepted in a particular society. They further explained that personality and social behaviour problems among children exposed to violence in the home can take the forms of psychosomatic illness, depression, bed-wetting and suicidal tendencies later in life.They further opined that children between the ages of one to six years old that encounter frequent domestic conflicts and violence showed clinical levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems such as depression, anxiety, high levels of general distress and some symptoms such as hyperactivity, new fears and aggressions, sleep disturbances, poor concentration and significant anxiety and excessive crying when separated from their care-giver.

Anderson and Bushman in Reisberg (2004) stated that cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child‟s development in terms of one‟s ability to learn and understand some basic concepts such as self-awareness, creativity, planning, problem solving and language to communicate which could be achieved through observation and imitation. They further opined that the ability to imitate starts very early in life and as children grow and mature the capacity for imitation grows as well and that the rate at which violence is portrayed at home and in the media affects children who watch them. Richard, (2011) opined that when parent and other grown up members of the family are in conflicts situations pre-school and school age children are seriously affected. While many people think that they are keeping the conflicts away from the children, the children notice tension in the home and it has a profound effect on their social behaviour and cognitive development. Richard further stated that some children respond to conflicts and violence by acting out, feeling sad and wanting to intervene, some become physically and verbally aggressive with their peers while some other children portrayed by behavioural problems such as frequent illness, isolation from parents and friends.

According to Kitsman, (2007) pre-school children are groups of children between the ages of three to five years old in nursery schools undergoing an educational establishment that offers early childhood education where the child learns how to identify and add numbers, identify shapes, colours, living things and non-living things, the alphabets and some simple sentences. While primary school children are children between the ages of six to twelve years old in an elementary class in which they receive primary education, the first stage of compulsory education coming between early childhood education and secondary education.

Kitsman, (2007) further opined that children of pre-school and school age are at the stage where cognitive development is dominated, by intellectual curiosity and performance, in view of this Eriskson (1994) in Snowman, Mccown, Biehier, (2009) observed that children learn to win recognition by producing things which can help them to develop a sense of industry. Therefore if children at this stage are encouraged to make and do things well, helped to persevere, allowed to finish tasks and praised for trying; it results to industry. If their efforts are unsuccessful or if they are denied or treated as bothersome due to the fact that parents or older siblings are cut off from them due to frequent domestic conflicts and violence, inferiority complex set in and such children may have few friends to interact with and may never learn to enjoy intellectual work or take pride in doing at least one kind of thing really very well, at worst, they may believe they will never excel at anything socially and cognitively; while some children may have trouble thinking, impaired thinking, abstract reasoning, poor problem solving skills and their memories affected.

Statement of the Problem

It is generally observed by the researcher that young children between the ages of one to ten years are generally falling victim to circumstances that happen among the family members. Most of their learning behaviour is through the daily practice of what they see happening around them. Children exposed to frequent domestic conflicts and violence do not have the foundations of safety and security that is normally provided by the family. As a result of that, the children experience desensitized to aggressive behaviour, poor anger management and problem solving skills and learn to engage in exploitative relationships.

The researcher has observed and interacted with some parents, nursery and primary school teachers and care-givers that some pre-school and school-age children in nursery and primary school in the North-Eastern states develop a range of problems in school which

include psychosomatic complaints, such as headaches or abdominal pain, as well as poor school performances are part of the general problems of children that come from conflict dominated homes. It has also been observed that these children do not have many friends or participate in outdoor activities; they do not have a sense of self-esteem and confidence. Nnachi (2004) carried out a survey study that aimed at determining dimensions of  child abuse in Okigwemetropolis of Imo state. It was found that some children were made to contribute financially or otherwise to the family survival when such is not done it could lead to conflicts which may end up in violence. Anyagafu (2005) narrated the story of a family residing in Lagos; he became devastated as a result of domestic violence as a result of that one of the victims of frequent domestic conflicts and violence is afraid of getting married due to the experiences he had while growing up with the parents and this goes to confirm the adage which goes “Like father like son, Like mother like daughter”.