Influence Of Child Abuse On The Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students
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Influence Of Child Abuse On The Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students
ABSTRACT
This initiative investigates the consequences of child abuse on student academic achievement. The study seeks to understand the causes, consequences, and solutions to child abuse among secondary school students in Lagos State. It was carried out in the Bariga Local Government Area of Lagos State.
A random sample of 100 students was picked from selected secondary schools in the local government, and questionnaires were distributed to them. The mean percentage test used in the study’s analysis revealed that excessive battering of a child by parents/teachers/guidance, broken households, child hawking before and after school, and an unsuitable learning environment are all causes of child abuse.
Furthermore, it was discovered that child abuse has a detrimental impact on a kid’s academic performance; abused children are more likely to become pregnant early. Ill treatment also creates chronic and lifelong trauma, causing youngsters to have poor cognition for school topics. Religious leaders should preach excellent morality to parents and guardians, according to the study’s suggestions.
Furthermore, imposing a fee on erring parents/guidance, particularly those who force their children to hawk, as well as preventing poor peer influence, will assist eliminate or minimise the incidence of child maltreatment among secondary school students to a bare minimum.
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background for the Study
Child abuse and neglect are rapidly becoming ubiquitous phenomena in today’s communities, despite the fact that children’s rights are recognised and, to some extent, protected by legislation and constitutions in many nations throughout the world. Childhood maltreatment could have serious economic consequences for Nigerian schools and their kids.
Even conservative estimates imply that at least 8% of children in the United States are sexually abused before the age of 18, while 17% are physically abused and 18% are physically neglected. Childhood abuse and harsh parenting methods, in general, have the potential to impede students’ academic success (Shonk & Cicchetti, 2001).
It has the potential to damage schools’ capacity to meet the standards of educational achievement outlined in the No Child Left Behind legislation (U.S. Department of Education, 2005), placing them at danger of losing federal funding. It also has the potential to harm pupils’ economic prospects in adulthood by reducing achievement in middle and high school (Cawley, Heckman, & Vytlacil, 2001).
The African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) defines child abuse as purposeful or inadvertent acts that harm the child’s physical, health, emotional, moral, and educational welfare.
Hopper (2004) defined child abuse as any form of mistreatment or subjugation that jeopardises a kid’s physical, emotional, or health development.
Gelles (2007) stated that child abuse includes not only physical violence, but also malnourishment, abandonment, neglect, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.
According to Mba (2002), the most common forms of child abuse in Nigeria are child battering, child labour, child abandonment, neglect, adolescent prostitution, early marriage, and forced marriage.
According to Kolander (2000), emotional and sexual abuse are widespread in Nigeria. According to Oji (2006), there were 625,024 babies born in Nigeria to teenage moms at the time of the study.
According to Walsh (2005), unplanned pregnancy has been identified as a major source of child abuse in Nigeria. Many mistreated children were unwanted in the first place and posed a significant burden on their emotionally immature or destitute parents.
Odey (2003) noted that children from poor homes are more vulnerable to abuse, and Todd (2004) supported this by stating that Nigeria, a corrupt nation in Africa, is on the verge of deadly poverty, with its teeming population without enough food for a healthy life.
Oluwole (2002) had similar sentiments while analysing the condition of minors who are utilised as house help. Child labour is one of the greatest impediments to achieving education for all (EFA), resulting in a setback in meeting the UN aim of universal primary education by 2015.
According to Onye (2004), child abuse is a sign of poverty. Aderinto and Okunola (2008) also claimed that some children were forced to sell their belongings on the street in order to support their families. That implies they are the breadwinners for their respective families from an early age.
It is typical to see children between the ages of 6 and 16 in Nigeria’s major parks and streets peddling items, pushing trucks for money, or begging for money while they should be in the classroom learning. All of this points to the reality that children are the most vulnerable groups, facing diseases, exploitation, neglect, and violence.
Although child abuse has a significant potential influence, there is no evidence of causal consequences on children’s long-term academic results. The existing body of research supporting a link between childhood maltreatment (physical and sexual abuse or neglect) and school performance is limited to negative associations.
On average, abused children receive lower performance ratings from their teachers, score lower on cognitive assessments and standardised tests of academic achievement, receive lower grades, and are suspended and retained in grade more frequently (Erickson, Egeland, & Pianta, 2003).
Abused children struggle to build new relationships with peers and adults, as well as to adjust to social behaviour norms (Shields, Cicchetti, and Ryan, 2004).
Although these examples of negative associations between child abuse and school performance suggest causal effects, they could be skewed by unmeasured factors in families or neighbourhoods that are also associated with poorer academic outcomes in children (Todd and Wolpin 2003).
Furthermore, none of the earlier research relating childhood abuse to poor academic performance applies well to older children in middle and high school, as well as children who have not yet been identified as in need of help.
Evidence of the consequences of maltreatment on academic achievement in the general population of middle and high school children is required in order to establish evidence of effects on general education attainment and adult economic outcomes.
Using a large dataset of adolescent sibling pairs from the United States of America (USA), this study investigates the impacts of maltreatment-neglect, physical violence, and sexual abuse on adolescents’ middle and high school performance.
First, we discuss how childhood maltreatment may theoretically have a negative impact on later school performance, as well as how unobserved family background and neighbourhood characteristics may influence ordinary least squares and fixed effects regression estimates of childhood maltreatment and subsequent school performance. Second, empirical estimates from models that account for both observable and unobservable family and neighbourhood factors are provided.
1.2 Statement of Problem
According to Grill (2009), schools can do a lot to combat child abuse because it has an impact on the educational system. Child abuse has always been an issue in Nigeria, and it has become increasingly detrimental to society as a whole. Child abuse has a long history in the Bariga Local Government Area of Lagos State, and the phenomenon’s prevalence in Lagos cannot be overstated.
Children were subjected to many sorts of abuse, including child battering, child work, abandonment, neglect, teenage prostitution, early marriage, and forced marriage. In most situations, the parents are directly responsible for all of these forms of social maltreatment.
The school, as a socialisation agent, is expected to have a strong and overwhelming influence on the child’s development; however, observation has shown that the essence of education may be defeated if children are forced to endure the pains of child labour on a continuous basis (Martins 2010).
However, the focus of this study is on the extent to which the school has been involved in the kid’s development within the societal environment of child abuse. And it is in light of these that the study seeks to elucidate the key causes of child maltreatment and how they affect the child’s academic performance.
1.3 Purpose of Study
The primary goal of this study project is to determine the impact of child maltreatment on secondary school students’ academic performance in the Bariga Local Government Area of Lagos State. Furthermore, this research study includes:
1. Investigate the causes of child abuse in Bariga Local Government Area.
2. Determine the effect of child maltreatment on children’s educational performance in the Bariga Local Government Area.
3. To investigate the effects of child abuse on children’s academic achievement.
4. To identify potential solutions for child abuse among secondary school students.
1.4 Research questions.
1. What are the causes of child abuse in the Bariga Local Government Area?
2. How does child abuse affect a child’s educational performance?
3. Does child abuse cause students to engage in anti-social behaviours and make them vulnerable to social maltreatment?
4. How can the issue of child abuse be addressed in our society?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The purpose of this study is to inform parents and school authorities about the extent to which child abuse, particularly after-school hawking, can harm students’ academic development in general.
This study is crucial because the findings will benefit parents, guardians, teachers, principals, and all other stakeholders in the educational system by providing a better understanding of the issues surrounding child abuse.
Such information may prevent any further exploitation of the child, particularly if it is employed as an object of family economic development. Hawking undoubtedly exposes the child to numerous societal vices, thus the study’s attempt to build a model for proper child upbringing in society is justified.
1.6 Delimitation/ Scope of Study
The study focused on the impact of child maltreatment on children’s academic performance, using secondary schools in the Bariga Local Government Area as a case study.
1.7 Definition of Terms.
The following terms are defined as the essence of this work:
1. youngster Abuse: Any youngster may be subjected to harsh or cruel treatment, either physically or emotionally.
2. Physical Abuse: any type of bodily punishment administered to a kid by a parent, teacher, or guardian.
3. Neglect: failing to pay attention or provide adequate care, resulting in incomplete tasks.
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