Influence Of Parental Socio-economic Status On The Incidence Of Child Abuse And Neglect Among Primary School Pupils In Aguata Education Zone Of Anambra State.

education is more than schooling, it is the process of dispelling  human  ignorance of the world as well as developing the inherent potentials for perfection. A right for education has been created and recognized by some jurisdictions. Since 1752, Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, obliges all signatory parties to  guarantee  the right to education. At the global level, the United Nations’ International Convention on Economic, Social and cultural Rights of 1966 guarantees this right under its Article 13 (Public Health Agency Canada, 2003).

Child abuse and neglect is not a new thing in Nigeria, and Nigeria government has promulgated laws to curb the social vices, still it is at its highest escalating point. There are socio-economic rights, the political rights, the private and personal rights just to mention a few. The socio-economic rights as published in Ambakogu (2004) includes, the right to survive (Article 5),  the right to health (Article 14) the right to education (Article 11), the right to be protected from all forms of economic exploitation (Article 15) among others. Sequel to the above, it is necessary that every Nigerian child is accorded a right to good life, a right to education, a right to be protected from all forms of abuse and neglect. In view of this, the researcher is inspired to investigate the  influence of socio-economic status or position on the incidence of child abuse and neglect in Aguata Education Zone of Anambra state.

 Statement of the Problem

Children are the biological future of the human race and their healthy growth and development should be of serious concern to everybody in society. Child development is largely determined by the quality of care received by the child. This explains why the United Nations (UN) Convention on the rights of the child provided that children in the care of a parent, guardian, teacher or any other person who has the care of children should protect them from all forms of torture or inhuman treatment and especially physical or mental abuse or neglect. Unfortunately, the rights of the child have not been protected by adult.

Studies have revealed that adults in many cases do not regard some of their violent behaviours toward children as abusive, but perceived as corrective measures in the best interest of the child. In this context, according to Ohia etal (2002) and Okpala (2010) these abuse are resultant influence of socio-economic status (low or high). Thus, the child may be battered, deprived, castigated or  even abandoned in extreme cases by parents, guardians or caregivers when he or she misbehaves.

Regrettably, despite governmental regulations, decrees, enactments and laws on child’s right, child abuse and neglect still persist. Could socio-economic status be responsible for abuse and neglect of children? What influence has socio-economic status on the incidence of child abuse and neglect. In this premise, the problem of this study therefore is to investigate the influence of socio-economic status on the incidence of child abuse and neglect in Aguata Education Zone of Anambra State.

Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of  parental socio-economic status on the incidence of child abuse and neglect among primary school pupils in Aguata Education Zone of Anambra State. Specifically, specifically, the study determined:

1. The influence of high socio-economic status SES of parents on  child abuse and neglect.

2. The influence of average SES of parent on child abuse and neglect.

3. The influence of low SES of parents on child abuse and neglect

4. The characteristics of child abuse and neglect in Aguata education zone