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Patterns And Causes Of Juvenile Delinquency As Expressed By Secondary School Students
[A CASE STUDY OF IBARAPA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE]
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Behaviour Development in Adolescents
Encarta Dictionary (2009) defines behaviour as the way in which a person, organism, or group responds to a specific set of conditions. Persons react to various stimuli or group responds to a specific set of conditions. Persons react to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary. Guez and Allen (2000) defined behaviour as a way an individual behaves or acts that is, the way an individual conducts himself or herself. Human behaviour can be common, unusual, acceptable, or unacceptable. Human evaluate the acceptability of behaviour using social norms and regulate behaviuor by means of social control. The sudden and rapid physical changes that adolescents experience make them very self-conscious, sensitive, and invariably affect their behaviour. Kilmartim (1994); Steveson and Larson (1996) are of the view that some behaviour exhibited by adolescents is typical, but when not-normal or socially unacceptable it serves as a warning sign for more serious or future problems. Typical behaviour of adolescents in more attachment to their friends and preference for spending quality time with them, going against parental decisions when contrary to those of their friends. They see denial of their desires as challenging their rights and good choices. Behaviours that are not normal in adolescents include:
• Stealing: take something unlawfully or take something that belongs to somebody else, illegally or without the owner’s permission.
• Staying out all night.
• Open defiance and/or refusal to follow rules.
• Hanging out with a dangerous crowd or peer.
• Come home drunk or high.
• Being verbally abusive, intimidating or threatening.
• Being physically abusive to others or destructive in the house.
• Obsessing about weight and/or dramatic changes in eating habits.
• Constant need to argue, even over small things.
• Passing the blame for everything-never taking any responsibility for their actions etcetera.
Stage of Adolescent Development
Adolescence is a challenging period for both children and their parents. Three stages of adolescence - early, middle and later, are experienced by most teens, but the age at which each stage is reached varies greatly from child to child. These different rates of maturation are connected to physical development and hormone balance, neither of which the child can control. For this reason, adolescents should be treated as individuals and any guidelines should be adapted to a particular child (Steinberg, 2008). According to Rice and Dolgin (2002), adolescence developmental stage can be divided into three stages: early adolescence, middle adolescence and late adolescence.
Stage One: Early Adolescence (approximately 10-14 years of age)
Movement toward Independence: emerging identity shaped over time by internal and external influences; moodiness; improved abilities to use speech to express oneself; more likely to express feelings by action than by words (may be more true for males); close friendships gain importance; less attention shown to parents, with occasional rudeness; realization that parents are not perfect; identification of their own faults; search for new people to love in addition to parents; tendency to return interests and clothing styles (Smetana, Campione-Barr, & Metzger, 2006).
Future Interests and Cognitive Development: increasing career interests; mostly interested in present and near future; greater ability to work.
Sexuality: girls physically mature faster than boys; shyness, blushing and modesty; more showing off; greater interest in privacy; experimentation with body (masturbation); worries about being normal (Steinberg, 2008).
Physical Changes: gains in height and weight; growth of pubic and underarm hair; increased perspiration - body odour develops; increased oil production of hair and skin; breast development and menstruation in girls; growth of testicles and penis, nocturnal emission (wet dreams), deepening of voice, growth of hair on face in boys (Steinberg, 2008).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]ABSTRACTThe challenges of adolescents are enormous simply because of diverse growth and development that characterized this stage, this lead many adolescents into delinquent behaviours. This study thus investigated the patterns and causes of delinquent behaviours as expressed by secondary school students in Ibarapa Local Government Area, Oyo State. The study also examined the influence of variables such as gender, age and residential area on respondents’ expressions. Descriptive survey de ... Continue reading---
APPENDIX A - [ Total Page(s): 2 ]SECTION C: Causes of Juvenile DelinquencyDirection: Kindly put a tick ( ) in the column that you consider as most applicable to you. There is no right or wrong responses. Please respond to all items as honestly as possible using the rating scales: SA - Strongly Agree; A - Agree; D – Disagree and SD - Strongly Disagree. ... Continue reading---
LIST OF TABLES - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]LIST OF TABLES Title 1. Demographic characteristics of respondents 2. Mean and rank order of patterns of juvenile delinquency among students 3. Mean and rank order of causes of juvenile delinquency 4. Mean, SD and t-test results comparing respondents’ expression on patterns of juvenile delinquency based on gender 5. Mean, SD and t-test results comparing respondents’ expression o ... Continue reading---
TABLE OF CONTENTS - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]TABLE OF CONTENTSContent Title page Certification Dedication Acknowledgements Table of Contents List of Tables Abstract CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTIONBackground to the Study Statement of the Problem Research Questions Research Hypotheses Purpose of the Study Significance of the Study Operational Definition of Terms Scope of the Study CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATUREConcept of Adolescence Concept of Juvenile Delinquency Theories of Juvenile Delinquency Age and Juvenile Delinquen ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER ONE - [ Total Page(s): 4 ]Studies have been conducted on juvenile delinquency, for instance, Hoeve, Dubas, Eichelsheim, Laan, and Jan (2009) carried out a meta-analysis study on the relationship between parenting and delinquency. The study found strong link among parental monitoring, psychological control and negative aspects of support such as rejection and hostility, accounting for up to eleven percent of the variance in delinquency. Ekpo and Ajake (2013) studied family socio-economic status and delinquency among senio ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER THREE - [ Total Page(s): 2 ]Psychometric Properties of the Instrument The psychometric analysis of the instrument was based on the validity and reliability measure. The properties are presented thus;Validity: Adewumi (1998) noted that a measuring instrument is described as valid when it measures truly and accurately the quality it is meant to measure. Validity is one of the most crucial psychometric properties of measurement and it is concerned with whether a test or scale really measures what it purports to measure. ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER FOUR - [ Total Page(s): 7 ]Research Question 2: What are the causes of juvenile delinquency among secondary school students in Ibarapa Local Government Area?Table 3 depicts the mean and rank order of respondents’ responses on causes of juvenile delinquency. The table shows that the respondents agreed to all the identified items as causes of juvenile delinquencies as the response scores are above average mean score of 2.5. However, items 1, 4, 12, 5 and 3 were ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th with mean scores of 3. ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER FIVE - [ Total Page(s): 3 ]RecommendationsThe following recommendations were made based on the findings of the study:1. Parents and the society should provide for the needs of adolescents (most especially the basic needs) so that they can be prevented from engaging in delinquent behaviours that may negatively influence their future.2. The school authorities should monitor students’ activities and encourage them on the needs to associate with peers that help them improve in their academic pursuits and mo ... Continue reading---
REFRENCES - [ Total Page(s): 4 ]Smetana, J. G., Campione,-Barr, N. & Metzger, A. (2006). Adolescent development in interpersonal and societal contexts. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 255-284.Snyder, H, N. & Sickmund, M. (2006). Juvenile offenders and victims. 2006 national report. Washington DC, US department of Justice, Office of Justice programmes office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Steinberg, L. & Monahan, K. C. (2007). Age differences in resistance to peer influence. Development Psychology 43(6): 1531- ... Continue reading---
