Scholars have emphasized the importance of family dinner on adolescents’behaviour. Fulkerson, et.al (2010) concluded in their studies that family dinner is positively associated with better child-parent relationship. Children between the ages of 12 and 14 years who ate dinner with a parent five or more days per week were found to be less likely to use alcohol or marijuana (Council of Economic Advisers, 2000). Also, Fisher, et.al (2007) and white andHalliwell (2010) have found also family dinners’ positive effect on lower likelihood of tobacco and alcohol use. Researchers such as Pomerleau, (1997), Lintonen, et. Al(2OOO), Lemstra, et.al (2008), Van der Post et.al (1998), Vereecken, et. al (2003) have examined the relationship between family social economic status and adolescents’ substance abuse, and they found that family socio-economic status is positively related with larger alcohol consumption.
According to Harland (2002) and Animashaun and Anirnashaun (2011) adolescents who witness frequent family conflicts at home may experience negative life events such as illness or psychological trauma, which is a critical predictor of the adolescents’ involvement in deviant acts. In the same line of thought, Ojikutu, Ismaila and Adeleke (2010), pointed that family disintegration is a significant risk factor for later alcohol and substance abuse. He observed that children who were raised from socially disintegrated families are 1.5-5 times more likely to engage in anti-social behaviours than those from two-parent families (Animashaun and Animashaun, 2014)
As could be deduced from the above, family disintegration is a strong predicator for involvement of the adolescent in deviant acts and that series of study has been conducted in this direction. However, most of the studies on family disintegration and involvement in deviantbehaviours are done in developed countries, and studies that are specifically done on Africa are few. In Nigeria, majority of the studies conducted on family disintegration and involvement in deviant acts focused more on drug abuse with little or no attention given to other deviant acts such as stealing, violent orientation and so on. Especially in Kwara which is the area of study for this study, there has not been much research effort directed to this end. In other words, given the state of research in this area academically, coupled with the increase rate of involvement adolescents in deviant acts, there is the need to engage inempirical research on the possible effects of family disintegration and the involvement of adolescents in deviant behaviours. Hence, this research work is set out to examine the influence of family disintegration and involvement in deviant act using some adolescents in some selected neighbourhoods in Ilorin metropolis as its object of study.
2.9 Appraisal of the Literature Review
This chapter of this research work is used to make review of relevant literatures useful for the better understanding of the study. As it is, the research has made review of literature on important concepts such as the meaning of family, the concept of family disintegration and the meaning of deviance. Also, the review has also lay its tentacle on discussion of the causes of deviance in human society generally, with that, it was expressed in the work that many factors could be seen as responsible for deviant acts in the society.
Also, the review also looked into the catastrophic effects of deviance on individual and the generality of the people in the society. Further, the literature review section also examined some of the solutions to the problems of deviance and family disintegration. In the end, a critical literature review was also made of the specific impacts of family disintegration’ on deviant acts in the society. Also, a sub-section of the literature review section was used to provide empirical justification for the study and it was realized through this exercise that this research is empirically justified to be carried out because apart from the fact that the research is examining two important aspects of social living (family and deviance), not much of such work has been carried in Ilorin which is the used as the area of study for the research.
