ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CHILD ABUSE AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN FROM LOW-INCOME FAMILIES IN KADUNA AND KANO STATES, NIGERIA  

ABSTRACT

This study titled correlation between child abuse and social behaviour of school-age children from low-income families in Kaduna and Kano states, Nigeria was aimed to study the relationship between child abuse and social behavior of School-age Children from low-income families in Kaduna and Kano States. In line with the above four specific objectives, four research questions were raised and four Null hypotheses were formulated. Descriptive survey research design using structured questionnaire was employed for the study. The population of the study was thirty five thousand two hundred and nine (35,209) parents, the School-age Children was three million thirty five thousand five hundred and twenty five (3,35525). In three thousand seven hundred and seventy (3,770) public Primary Schools in Kaduna and Kano States, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the sample size of three hundred and eighty eight (388) children and parents for the study. Pilot study was conducted at Funtua local government of Katsina State and Dutse local government of Jigawa State, to determine the reliability of the designed instrument. Collected data were analyzed using frequencies and percentages for demographic variables of the respondents. Frequency and mean statistics was employed to analyze the research questions, while the four Null hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Statistic at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The findings revealed that Children and parent responses showed that Low-income families were more involved in child abuse in the States, because they don‘t have enough money to cater for their children‘s needs. Also abused children have poor social skills resulting to poor social behaviour and poor interpersonal relationship between their parents and other adult in the society. The researcher concluded that child abuse among the low-income families was attributed to many factors which include; lack of adequate nutrition, good shelter, comfortable clothing, sound education and medical care necessary for good living. Recommendations were made which include, as low-income constitute a powerful factor that has relationship with child abuse; Parents are hereby encouraged to have more employment opportunities in different skill acquisition to improve on their low income level in the family. Parents should dedicate more time to the socialization and training of their children, so that to improve on their good social behaviour necessary for individual happy life.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

A child in every home is seen as a gift from God and also a source of blessing, joy, happiness and hope for his parents.  Hornby (1999) in Onuigbo (2009) describes the child as a human being who is not yet an adult. A child could be a boy or a girl from the time of birth until they are aged 18years. United Nation Children‘s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) (2001) stated that children are internationally accepted as human beings below the ages of eighteen years. They are special members of each nation and link between the present and future generations.  All children are born to grow and develop, to articulate their feelings and needs, but growing up and developing smoothly is often difficult for most children. Some children receive and enjoyed the love, affection and care from their parents or care givers to develop into healthy, happy adolescents, while others are hurt or abused by their parents, adults or care givers. Sebre (2004) viewed child abuse as ―any failure of a parent or care giver to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, safety and well-being for their children is child abuse. Sebre further stated that it is a situation in which a child lacks attention from people surrounding him and the non-provision of relevant and adequate necessities for the child‘s survival which would be a lacking in attention, love and nurture.

African Network for Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) (2000), looked at child abuse from a broad view that any situation where adults maltreat children by under mining their rights making them to do hard work that is too much for their age, giving them   excessive   punishments   and   not   giving   them  enough  balanced  diet  is   child abuse.

 

Gerbner  (2004) defined  child   abuse  as ―non-accidental  physical  injury or injuries that result from the acts or omission on the part of parents or guardians that violate the community standard concerning the treatment of the child. Based on the researcher view, it can be said that child abuse is when children are over worked and maltreated by adults and at the same time, giving them excessive punishment not considering their age and the nature of offence. Ross (1996)  observe that some of the observable signs in an abused child include: the child is frequently absent from school, begs or steals food or money, lacks needed medical treatment, lacks adequate  nutrition, is consistently dirty and lacks sufficient clothing for the weather. Most cultures in the world may view child abuse, emotionally and physically, as socially acceptable, which is due to different child rearing practice and belief among different culture.  Each culture has their own ―range of acceptability‖ and what one may view as offensive; others may seem as tolerable behaviours that are normal, all depending on the societal norms of that particular country. Akanle, (2007).

Social behaviour is another area of main concern to this study. Social behaviour is explained as the ability of the child to relate well with others as he grows up. The parents are the child first agent of socialization; they can contribute either positively or negatively to the growth and development of the child. Zubairu (2011) is of the view that social behaviour depend on the training the child receives early enough in his life, by his parents and teachers as well as those closer to him which includes his brothers and sisters, care givers or nannies. Zubairu further stated that it is the responsibility of parents to see that their children acquire quite early in life certain social skills and techniques, and certain social understanding and tolerance, necessary for the satisfaction of social needs and leading to whole some social life. Andrew (2000) defined social behaviour as a process by which a child learns to interact with others around him. As children develop and perceive their own individuality within their community, they also gain skills to communicate with other people. Steve (2004) said that, social development most often refers to how a child develops friendships and other relationships, as well as how a child handles conflict with peers. Fundamentally, the child learns the appropriate behavioral patterns, societal values, cultural demands, attitude and cherished norms from the parents. The failure of the parents to correctly transmit these ideals to the child will affect him negatively in his future life.

The School-age Child is a child between 6-12 years. The child social behaviour begins to reach new levels at this age. This is a point in time when most children spend more hours in a day at school with other children. Herrenkohl (2005) explained that early school-age children should be able to use simple, but complete sentence that average five to seven words. As the child goes through elementary school years, grammars and pronunciation become normal. Children use more complex sentences as they grow. Children who are unable to express themselves well may be more likely to have aggressive behavior or temper-tantrums. Finkelman  (1995) explained that peer acceptance become more important during the school-age years. Children may take part in certain behavior to be part of ―the group‘‘. Friendship at this age tends to be mainly with members of the same sex. Children become less negative about the opposite sex as they get closer to adolescence.

Low income families are families living below average of $1.7/day as at 2016. Adekeye (2001) viewed low-income as the conditions of not having enough income to meet the basic needs for food, shelter, clothing and well being for the family. Low income families were unable to meet the basic needs of their children. A child whose parents is not able to meet his needs in terms of food, clothing, shelter and education was exposed to the risk of being abuse in the society.

Anoocan (2000) opined that difficult economic circumstances in the country generally affect the living standard of most families. Unemployment and financial difficulties of most low-income families in Nigeria are associated with increase rates of child abuse in the country. Poverty is a reliable predicator of child abuse among low-income families.

Child abuse has adverse effect on social behaviour of school-age children, because abused children have difficulty in forming relationship with their peers. Duruh (2009). Stated that child abuse is more common in low-income families because they lack both social and economic resources and it is difficult for them to access necessities for their children well-being. Lowincome families have been found to be associated with higher level of emotional and behavioural difficulties including anxiety, depression and aggression.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

In Nigeria most especially in Kaduna and Kano States, children of school-age are seen begging, hawking and roaming about on the street. The situation of most Nigerian children remains critical due to the unique factors of their low socio-economic status, cultural, and traditional circumstances. Children are compelled by circumstances beyond their control to contribute to family income. In the long run, working children are abused in several ways due to their involvement in all sort of hazardous work which affects their health and developmental process. Child abuse impacts are not only the abused child and other siblings at home, but also have major social and economic implication on the society at large.

Children are being unfairly treated and subjected to different forms of exploitative abuse such as physical punishment, hawking, begging, and ill-treatment by their parents; which make them to be aggressive, and delinquencies and some time may constitute threat to different bullying.

Gelles (2001) posited that child abuse are integral part of modern world including African society, corporal punishment was widely given in the African society for disobedient children, these include caning, beating and in some communities, painful punishment such as rubbing pepper into genital region are practiced He further stressed that balancing disciplinary responsibilities within parenting is common in many Asian cultures, including China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and Korea. The researcher observed that abused children do not always find it easy to established relationship with others or adapt to societal norms in the society. They are often found to be aggressive, truant and sometime at higher risk to engage in delinquencies, like drug abuse, vandalism and cultism in the society. Such children eventually may constitute part of security problems in the country, and victimize their own children; hence the cycle of violence may extend into generations.

Child abuse is a national problem, which has increased the epidemic proportions; in United States (U.S) more than 2.5 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States annually with hundreds of death related to child abuse. As of 2006, between 25,000 and 50,000 children in Kinshasha, democratic republic of Congo, children had been accused of witchcraft and abandoned. Guardian news paper (2006) pointed out that in Malawi, it is also common practice to accuse children of witchcraft and many children have been abandoned, abused and even killed as a result. Byrne (2011) observe that in the Nigerian States of Akwa Ibom and Cross River about 15,000 children were branded as witches.

The researcher also observed that parents give their children excessive punishment as a way of correcting their misdeed and many children misinterpret excessive punishment on them as lack of love, and many therefore react aggressively towards them. In extreme cases, children may see the home as non-accommodating any longer, and can run away from home, thereby exposing themselves to danger, drug use, stealing and other anti-social behaviors.

The researchers interaction with parents from low-income families also showed that child abuse occur because parent express strong negative feeling towards catering for their children, because they don‘t have enough money to cater for their children‘s needs, thereby they abused them and deny them their rights to education, nutrition and proper development. As a result the researcher feels it would affect the children physical, emotional, moral, social and mental development. This prompted the researcher to carry out the research. Child abuse is a serious phenomenon that calls for permanent solutions, most especially bearing in mind its devastating effects to the social behaviour of the child, and society as a whole, this is obvious reason that has made this study pertinent.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

Major Objective

The major objective of the study is to examine the correlation between Child abuse and social behaviour of School-age Children from Low-income families in Kaduna and Kano States.

The specific objectives of this study are to:

1. determine the extent to which Low socio-economic status of parents affect child abuse in

Kaduna and Kano states.

2. determine the relationship between child abuse and children‘s social behaviour in Kaduna and Kano states.
3. determine the relationship between child abuse and gender of children in Kaduna and

Kano states.

4. determine the relationship between parenting styles and child abuse in Kaduna and Kano

States.

1.4   Research Questions

The following research questions are set for the study:

1. To what extent does low socio-economic status of parent affect child abuse in Kaduna and Kano states?
2. What is the relationship between child abuse and social behaviour of school-age children in Kaduna and Kano states?
3. What is the relationship between child abuse and gender of children in Kaduna and Kano states?
4. What is the relationship between parenting style and child abuse in Kaduna and Kano states?

1.5   Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses have been formulated for the research study:

1. There is no significant relationship between child abuse and low socio-economic status of parents in Kaduna and Kano States.
2. There is no significant relationship between child abuse and social behaviour of schoolage children in Kaduna and Kano States.
3. There is no significant relationship between child abuse and gender of Children in

Kaduna and Kano States?

4. There is no significant relationship between parenting styles and child abuse in Kaduna and Kano States.

1.6   Significance of the Study:

The outcome of the study will educate parents, teachers and those charged with the responsibilities of raising children. It will be useful to Federal, state and local government agencies, such as police, social workers and health agencies charge with the responsibility of curbing child abuse in the society. Also it will benefit the student on research work similar to this study.

This study will be useful to parents and teachers by increasing their awareness on the nature and consequences of child abuse problems on children social behaviour, both parents and teachers would be more aware of the research findings through parent-teachers association and guidance and counseling services organized in the schools. It will also be useful to Federal, state and local government agencies, such as police, social workers and health agencies, need to be better prepared to help both victims and perpetrators of child abuse through formal intervention by checking and investigating the abused cases thoroughly and should be resolved once and for all, with appropriate punishment on the perpetrator. The finding of this study will contribute to knowledge on child abuse, which will be beneficial not only to Kaduna and Kano state people but also to parent and individuals who engage their children in child abuse practice in the country. Finally, the study will serve as a point of reference for further research studies.

1.7   Basic Assumption

This study assumed that:

1. Child abuse is associated with behaviour and psychological problems throughout

individual‘s life.

2. Child abuse has adverse effect on children‘s social behaviour, because they have

difficulties in forming relationship with peers.

3. Low Socio-economic status of parent can affects social behaviour of school-age children.

1.8   Delimitation of the Study.

The study is delimited to the correlation between child abuse and social behavour of school-age children from low-income families in Kaduna and Kano states. The study covered children from all local government public primary school in Kaduna and Kano states were the subject of the study. This study is delimited to children and parents in central, southern and northern senatorial districts of Kaduna and Kano state, which comprised Giwa, Jema‘a and Kudan in Kaduna state also Dala, Bichi, Bebeji and Wudil in Kano state. It is also delimited to school age children who are victims of child abuse practice, because of their parent low socio-economic status. Even though child abuse occurs at all levels, of income, low-socio-economic status families are more likely to be labeled as abusive, because they usually do not have a network of support from friends and family, and it is difficult for them to access necessities for their children‘s well being.

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CHILD ABUSE AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN FROM LOW-INCOME FAMILIES IN KADUNA AND KANO STATES, NIGERIA  

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