FAMILY FACTORS AS A DETERMINANTS OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOR AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Family has been universally perceived as a small but powerful unit and the oldest institution in the history of human existence that helps in the character formation of the child and molding of behaviour of the individual in the society. This is because family is the fundamental and basic social unit for human development and also the primary agent for socialization of children. According to Macionis (2007) family is a social institution found in all societies that unites people in cooperative groups to care for one another including children. Family is a social unit made up of father, mother, children and blood relations (Okonkwo, 2005). Similarly, Ononuju(2005) opined that family is a unit of people tied together by bonds of marriage, birth or adoption, having in most cases a common abode. The author also maintained that man and woman as the first members of the family have obligations towards the younger members as they arrive and that involves inculcating social norms such as love, care, cooperation and discipline among her members. Buttressing further, the author posited that when families fail in these basic functions, a faulty foundation is laid which will result in faulty adult behaviours such as corruption and all kinds of indiscipline. In the context of this study, Family can also be seen as a kinship group of two or more persons who live in the same household and are related by marriage or adoption. Family also performs certain functions for their sustainability and wellbeing. Family performs many functions such as reproduction or procreation, protection and care of young ones, educational functions and provision of shelter (home) (Sunil, 2011). Reproduction or procreation is an essential function which the family performs in all societies. The family along with regulating the sexual behaviour in relation to the satisfaction of sexual needs secures a legitimate basis for procreation. This function of the family contributes to the continuity of family and ultimately perpetuates the human race.

Peer pressure can be seen as the influence exerted by peer group in encouraging a person to change his/her attitude, values or behaviours to conform to the group. A person affected by peer pressure may or may not want to belong to this group. They may also recognize dissociative groups that they do not wish to belong and therefore, adopt behavior in opposition to those of the group. In the same vein, Harris (1998) opined that peer pressure can cause people to do things they will not normally do, e.g. to take drugs, smoke, date, rude, fight, vandalise, cheat in examination, lie, walk out of teacher and so on. Adolescent peer pressure is particularly common because most youth are forced to spend large amount of time with their groups i.e. (schools and sub-group within them) regardless of the opinion of thosegroups. Again, they may lack the maturity to handle the peer pressure. Adolescent are also more willing to have negative behavior towards those who are not members of their own peer groups (Ungar, 2004). In consonance with Ungar, it is possible that if one is involved with a group of people who are ambitious and working to succeed, one might feel pressured to follow suit to avoid feeling excluded from the group. Adolescents may less likely to be heavily influenced by their friends and more likely to make their own decisions if they have high self-esteem, individual goals, a positive outlook on the future, good social skills, the ability to interact with people from different background and strong connections of family and community (Onwuamanam, 1998). Adams (1996) equally posited that adolescents are more likely to be heavily influenced by their peers and less likely to make decisions for themselves if they have no self-esteem and may be experiencing problems in their family such as absence of parents, drug, anger, verbal abuse, theft, fight and many more. It seems that the socialization experience of adolescents is focused on peer interaction. Adolescents are more likely to discuss their problems with their peers than with their parents and are more susceptible to their peer’s perception of right and wrong. Adolescent usually exhibit high emotional tension and it is often said that adolescent is a period of storm and stress-they are usually restless at this period because of their stage, as they always want to discover their world (Mohammed, 2012). But it seems, not all adolescence in our society may go through this acclaimed storm and stress, proper upbringing matters. Therefore, adolescent’s lives today are far more complex and demanding than yester years. Parents today rush their children into these obligations and doing that are appropriate for them, simply to satisfy themselves in the challenging world of work. Adolescence in this condition would seek the help of their peers to support their behavioral challenges, as it is often said, no man is an island‘.Kring, Davidson, Neale and Johnson (2007) observed that those delinquent behaviours exhibited by adolescents are in two categories. A pervasive pattern of disregard for the rights of others from the age of 15 such astruancy, running away from home, frequent lying, theft, arson and inconsistency, breaking rules, being irritable, physical aggressive, defaulting on debts, being reckless, impulsive, neglecting plan ahead, show little regard for truth and little remorse for their misdeeds.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The manifestation of delinquency among primary school pupils has remained an age long problem in the Nigerian primary school system. In a study carried out by Ajake, Etuk and Omori (2010) shows that there is a high rate of school complain about student’s delinquency. At this juncture, family has an enormous task of ensuring that the adolescent grows appropriately in this regard. The extent to which parents and other adults in the family make provision for the holistic growth of their wards, with the view of curbing societal ills has generated a lot of concern in our contemporary Nigeria as a whole and Awgu Education Zone of Enugu State in particular. Increased attention is being given to the ability of individual and family to successfully remedy the negative impact on delinquency.

The researcher having seen the unwholesome behaviour that emanated from children which causes burden to parents, school administrator/ teacher and the society, wade into the research of this nature to find out may be parenting styles like democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire have a way of causing delinquent behaviour and probably peer pressure as a social factor, makes primary school pupils to adopt certain behavior in order to fit in with others could influence delinquent behaviour.