GENDER AND LOCALITY AS FACTORS INFLUENCING ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOUR AMONG ADOLESCENTS

ABSTRACT

The study investigated influence of locality and parental socio-economic background on moral behaviour among adolescents in the south eastern Nigeria. 176 adolescents 91 males and 85 females selected from four secondary schools, two from urban and rural areas each. The participants were within the age bracket of 12-17 year with a mean age of 15 years. Ethical moral self inventory fits (1965) was used for data collection. 2×2 factorial design was adopted based on two independent variables locality (urban and rural) and parental socio-economic (low and high) with two levels each. Two way ANOVA statistics was used for data analysis. Finding revealed a significant influence of locality on moral behaviour among adolescences. F, (1, 172) = 64.02 P<.01; A significant influence of parental socio-economic background on moral behaviour F, (1,172) = 172.09 P<.01. No interaction effect was observed F, (1, 172) =3.73 P>.05. Findings were discussed in relation with the literature reviewed and recommendations were also made.

CHAPTER ONE

1.1     INTRODUCTION

As manure is necessary for good yielding vegetation, so is a good moral background to an ideal society. From the above statement, morality seems to be an inevitable quality of an ideal society. Thus, depriving any community access to a good moral reputation is as bad as terminating her entire existence. One of the insidious social illness that threatens the future survival of Nigeria as a developing nation is the continuous declination in morality level of her adolescents. The concept of morality is essential in the understanding of thoughts and behaviours. From the 46 chromosomes in the human genome, 45 are unisex (Harris, 1998). Female and male are therefore similar in many physical and traits, such as age of setting teething, and walking. They are also alike in many psychological traits, such as overall vocabulary, certainty, intelligence, self-esteem, and happiness. Actually, there are some differences and it is this difference, not the many similarities that capture attention and make news. Researchers in the main stream sociological tradition exemplified by Limp-man Blumen (1984) have argued that people first acquire gender through socialization in childhood. It has been argued kin a large number of studies that boys act differently toward girls from birth onward. In the first 24 hours after birth, according to one study, parents described boys as more alert stronger and firmer and girls as less attentive, weaker, and more fragile, this go a long way in determining the behavior of the child in all aspect of his or her development including assertiveness. Gender is virtually assessed in every study that evaluated treatment, retention and outcome (Berrigan & Garfield, 1981). People expect woman to behave unassertively.