FAMILY INTERACTION AND DEATH OF PARENTS AS CORRELATES OF CHILD ABUSE

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine the relationship between family interaction and child abuse among public secondary school students in South-west Nigeria. A descriptive research design of exploratory type was adopted for the study. A total of 1,440 public secondary school students in 36 schools from nine local government areas in south-western states of Nigeria, were sampled for this study. Out of these students, 695 students were found to be abused and their responses formed the data that were analysed for this study. A self-constructed questionnaire titled ‘Child Abuse Questionnaire’ (CAQ) was administered on the students after validation. The instrument has construct validity co-efficient of 0.76 and a reliability co-efficient of 0.83. The statistical technique that was used to analyse the data collected was Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The result showed that there was a significant relationship between family interaction and child abuse among these secondary school students. Based on this finding, it was recommended, among others, that parents should always relate to their children with love and affection; and should desist from administering corporal punishment on their children in anger. It was recommended that parents should provide the needs of their children and that government should embark on enlightenment campaign to educate parents on their duties and responsibilities towards their children.