CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
Child neglect
is an act of omission by the parents that involves refusal or delay in
provision of basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and education.
Child neglect
is the most common and important type of child maltreatment that has worsening
impacts on personality development and cognitive restructuring of the child.
There are many types of Child neglect like physicalneglect, emotional neglect,
health neglect and educational neglect (Corcoran 2004) although there is not a single cause for this matter but
there are variety of causes responsible for this act. In most of the
casesparents are the eventual source of neglect for their children.
Child neglect depends on how a child and society perceives
the parents’ behavior; it is not how parents believe they are behaving towards
their child.Parental failure to provide for a child, when options are
available, is different from failure to provide when options are not available.
Poverty and lack of resources are often
contributing factors and can prevent parents from meeting their children's
needs, when they otherwise would. The circumstances and intentionality must be examined before defining
behavior as neglectful.
Child neglect is not a new
phenomenon in the history of man. It has been going on right from time
immemorial. In Africa/Nigerian society what constitute abuse today has never
been regarded as abuse. It has been seen as a way of training the child to
become a well behaved, disciplined and self actualized person in society. It is
a normal process that children from birth be exposed to a variety of
experiences from parents, caregivers and other adults in the society. This is
to enable the children acquire the necessary basic norms and skills for
effective participation in the society where they belong and for their personal
growth and development.
Parental involvement in a child education has a definite impact on the
child’s level of academic performance. According to Falemu (2013) parental
involvement in education is important because it is positively related to a
child’s self expectation for academic success.
Parental involvement in children’s learning is positively related to
improved performance (Oguniyi 2009). They further reiterated that the more
intensively parents are involved in the children’s learning, the higher the
performance and that this position holds truth for all types of parental
involvement in children’s learning and for all types and ages of students
The level of parental involvement has
important implications for children’s academic performance. Social cognitive
theory suggests that children absorb messages about appropriate behavior and
socially accepted goals by observing and talking with important people in their
lives (Bandura, 1987). Based on this assumption, parents have the potential to
model positive attitudes and behaviors toward school, and research in developed
countries such as the United States has shown that parental involvement
contributes to child academic success (Fan & Chen, 2001; Houtenville&
Conway, 2008;
Parental involvement over the past decade, indicates that regardless of
family income or background, "students with involved parents are more
likely to earn higher grades and test scores, enroll in higher-level programs,
be promoted, pass their classes, earn credits, attend school regularly, have
better social skills, show improved behavior, adapt well to school and graduate
to postsecondary education" (Henderson & Map, 2002: ).
Parents’ involvement in their children’s
education has been shown to be an important variable that positively influences
children’s education (Epstein, 2007). More and more schools are observing the
importance and are encouraging families to become more involved. Because of
this recent trend, it has become essential to understand what is meant by
parent involvement and in what ways it has an influence on children’s
education.
When schools, families, and community groups work together to support
learning, children tend to do better in
school, stay in school longer, and like school more. (Epstein, 2007)
Parental participation in pre-school activities includes a wide range of
behaviors but generally refers to parents' and family members' use and
investment of resources in their children's schooling. These investments can
take place in or outside of school, with the intention of improving children's
learning. Parental involvement at home can include activities such as
discussions about school, helping with homework, and reading with children.
Involvement at school may include parents volunteering in the classroom,
attending workshops, or attending school plays and sporting events (Rain and
William, 2011).
Parent is the child's first and most important teacher in life and he is
expected to play an active role in the child's education. Parent is supposed to
be supportive to the child in all aspects which include socially, physically,
mentally and also emotionally (Epstein, 2001).
The process of acquiring these
skills is sometimes stressful for the children to bear. Some parents and care
givers make the condition for acquiring these skills so difficult that the
children may find it difficult to cope. The condition in which children are
exposed to as they try to acquire the skills to become disciplined and
hardworking individuals is where the problems lie. When these conditions become
over-stretched it becomes an abuse. For instance, when a child is taught the
skills of becoming a farmer, he is taken to the farm, he practice these skills
and he is kept in the farm doing that same work from dawn to dusk, without any
rest, or having a good meal, this becomes negkect(Apebende, Umoren, Ukpepi andNdifon, 2010).
Also it may be normal if a child is asked to hawk from morning to evening or
before going to school he sales and immediately after school he continues until
dusk. This becomes an abuse. Orere-Clifferd (2011) states that children suffer
from Child neglect because their parents and guardian demand a great deal from
them for more than the children would bear. Most children in our public schools find themselves in such situation
most often.
Child neglect is found in all
societies and social class. It is found in the rich or poor home, as well as
illiterate or literate homes. The parents abuse their children by frequently
using them in their farm work, trade and businesses. This is to help support
the income of the home and sometimes to provide for children needs. They are
sometime asked by their parents to do some menial jobs such as house helps,
cooks, baby sitters, and gardeners to help improve the income of the home (Apebende, Umoren,
Ukpepi andNdifon, 2010).
The rich on the other hand have
enough to care for their children but they exploit the children they employ as
house helps and cooks. This they do by over working the servants in the daily
house chores, while their own children are over pampered.
The servants or house
helps work 24 hours a day, without any rest. Others do not have good food,
clothes and sometimes no good place to lay their heads. Some are treated like
animals, they are beaten, kicked pushed, and sometimes, hot oil, water and even
acid is used on them. (Falaye, 2013).
Many more, caregivers
called abusive names such as; good for nothing, block head, etc. sometimes some
are tired hands and feet and locked in a room, for hours and even days. These
actions demoralize the child (Falaye, 2013).
Those who go to school
may not be attentive in class because of the work they do
at home. The classroom may be the only place where they have a rest from such
home activities so they may fall asleep in the class. They may therefore not
partake in classroom activities and so may not acquire any learning (Apebende, Umoren,
Ukpepi andNdifon, 2010).
The children of the
rich parents may not be allowed to take part in the general activities in the
home. They may therefore not know how to cook, wash or care generally for the
home. This constitutes an abuse because the child needs to be exposed to such
activities because it is certain that the child may need such knowledge in
future (Falaye, 2013).
Neglect according to
Okpara (2001) include inadequate feeding, shelter and lack of supervision,
inadequate body care, poor clothing, poor and denial of medicinal attention and
inadequate provision of educational materials and supervision. Other aspects of
neglect may include letting the child live in a filthy environment and non
provision of proper nourishment.
Other aspects of Child
neglect may include child exploitation, slavery, trafficking and abandonment.
The different forms of abuse affect the child in all spheres of life including
academic attainment.
Conversely, a child is
said to be abused when the parents, care givers or any human action leads to
physical, emotional and sexual abuse of the child. It also involves failure of
the parents to provide the necessary love and care for the child.
It has been observed of
late that the academic performance of children in secondary schools in the State, particularly,
in IkejaLocal government Area is becoming low. One wonders if such low academic
performance is as a result of the parental negect. The study therefore seeks to
find out if parent neglect has any effect on the academic performance of
secondary schools studnets.
Statement
of the Problem
At the heart of every
educational system lays the desire for the students, teachers and the
institutions to achieve their educational goals; however, the extent to which
this desire is achieved in the study period of a student varies based on
individual differences. Individual differences in academic performance have
been linked to differences in intelligence and personality. Students with
higher mental ability as demonstrated by IQ tests and those who are higher in
conscientiousness (linked to effort and achievement motivation) tend to perform
highly in academic settings. A recent meta-analysis suggested that mental
curiosity (as measured by typical intellectual engagement) has an important
influence on academic performance in addition to intelligence and conscientiousness.
Despite high mental abilities, conscientiousness and intellectual engagement
demonstrated by most children it has been observed of late that the academic
performance of children in secondary
schools in the State, particularly, inIkeja Local Government Area is
becoming low. It has also been observed that in this recent times issues of Child
neglect is on the rise in the local government due to economic depression
caused by the global economic backdrop and incessant social/civil unrests. One
wonders if such low academic performance is as a result of the
abuse/maltreatment children are exposed to. This became the motivation to
investigate the effect of Child neglect on academic performance of primary
school pupils in Kwande Local Government.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of
the study is to investigate causes and effect of parental neglect on junior
secondary school students academic performance, a case study of Ikeja local
government area of Lagos state
Specifically, the study seeks to
investigate;
i.
The causes of parent neglect on junior
secondary students performance in school
ii.
To find out effect of parent negelect on
students academic performance
iii.
To find
out whether home environment has an influence on academic performance of students
iv.
To
investigate whether parents’ participation in educational activities at home
has an influence on academic performance of junior secondary school students
Research
Questions
In order to achieve the objectives
the following questions are hereby posed;
1. What
are the causes of parent neglect on junior secondary students performance in
school
2. What
are the effect of parent neglect on students academic performance
3. To what extent does home environment has an
influence on academic performance of
students
4. Does parents’ participation in educational
activities at home has an influence on academic performance of junior secondary
school students
Significance
of the Study
The findings of this study will
be an eye opener for parent in improving parental involvement in
academic performance of students. The
study will also provide intellectual inputs for future researchers in search
for knowledge on parental involvement on academic performances. This will form
a foundation for further studies too.
The findings can be helpful to teachers and the parents in developing
programs to upgrade their skills, knowledge, positive altitude and competencies
of handling children.
The result of this study will be an added advantage
to governments stand on child’s right act and care, if it shows a significant
influence. Parents, Guardians, Teachers, other caregivers and the general
public will find the result of this study useful, as it will reveal to them the
need for effective care and protection of their children, especially the
importance of providing educational needs for a higher academic performance.
The research will also be a resource of value to other researchers carrying out
research on the topic or similar subject matter.
Scope
of the Study
The study is intended to cover all
thesecondary schools in Ikeja Local
Government Area. However, due to time and financial limitations the study is
limited to 5 selected secondary schools.
The study is also limited to the issue of parentsneglect and academic
performance of students; since it will be too cumbersome to study all the
factors that deter academic performance of school children in the area.
