CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
In contemporary time, it appears that
deviant behaviours have taken over the accepted norms of the society. Juvenile
delinquency refers to delinquent and criminal behaviours among young people as
they negotiate he transition from childhood to adulthood in an increasingly
complex and confusion world. Although the issue of juvenile delinquency is an
age long problem, it seems that juvenile delinquency of the past cannot be
compared with that of the present era. It is more now as a result of
evolutionary changes in all aspect of life.
The antisocial behaviours often associated
with the juvenile delinquents include vandalism, drug abuse, weapon carrying,
alcohol abuse, rape, examination malpractices, school violence, bullying, cultism,
truancy, schooling dropouts, to mention but a few. Deviant behaviours is not only common
among the male adolescents, female adolescents are also involved. Due to some
of these acts, most youths involved dropout of school and take to the streets.
Some becomes motor park touts, while other especially the girls take to a particular
trade or prostitution. All these are because they can no longer cope with their
academics in school. Obviously, unless something is done to rollback the wave
of juvenile delinquency and its influence on the academic performance in Senior
Secondary Two (SS 2). The prospect of a better safer and prosperous society
emerging in Nigeria will remain elusive.
The society has been fighting seriously
and making them better leaders of tomorrow but it cannot be overruled that
these delinquent acts by adolescents are caused mainly by broken homes, peer
group, poor socioeconomic background, violent films, etc. Deviant behaviour can
be said to be deviation from norms in which behaviour is placed in a
disapproval direction in sufficient degree, that exceed the tolerance limit of
a particular community, this essentially constitutes delinquency.
According to Chambers English Dictionary (1990),
juvenile delinquency is seen to be omission of duties, crimes committed by
young people. Also Clinard of the University of Wisconsin, in his book
“Sociology of deviant behaviour” defined juvenile delinquency to be antisocial
acts committed by persons under certain age usually sixteen (16) to eighteen
(18) which are considered to be injurious to the person or to the society as a
whole.
These acts of juvenile include not only
those which would be crimes if committed by adults but many other offences
which are particularly juvenile such as truancy, incorrigibility and vandalism.
Since the society have standard of conduct that must be met by their members
personally, I see juvenile delinquency as mainly an act of indiscipline by
youths. This is a willful violation of societal norms or rejection of institutional
norms or societal ethics. Morrish (1978) describes indiscipline as lack of self
control and a rejection of the expected standards, behavioural deviations and
consequent breach of order which paralyses effective academic performance.
Lots of research findings have been carried
out by scholars into the cause of juvenile delinquency and suggestions on how
to tackle it as a precipitating factor that affect academic performance in
secondary schools. The most outstanding is delinquent/indiscipline attitude of
students towards studies, teachers, parents, elders and the society in general
and based on this there is a result of poor academic performance in our
schools.
In view of the attendant problems of juvenile
delinquency which results to poor academic performance in our schools among
youths, the need to conduct this research study in Calabar Township is
imperative.
1.2 Theoretical
framework
Social
cognitive theory
Social cognitive theory (SCT) refers to a
psychological model of behaviour that emerged primarily from the work of Albert
Bandura (1977-1986). Initially developed with emphasis that learning occurs in
a social context, and that much of what is learned is gained through observation.
Social cognitive theory has been applied broadly to such diverse areas of human
functioning as career choice organisational behaviour, athletics and mental and
physical health. Social cognitive theory also has been applied extensively by
those interested in understanding motivation, learning and achievement (Pajares,
1996; Schuuk and Zimmerman, 1994; 1998).
Social cognitive theory rest on several
basic assumptions about learning and behaviour. One assumption concern triadic
reciprocality or the view that personal behavioural and environmental factors
influence one another, a bidirectional and reciprocal fashioning is a product
of a continuous interaction between cognitive behavioural and contextual
factors. For instance, classroom learning is shaped by factors within academic
environment experienced by oneself and by another. At the time learning is affected
by student’s own thoughts and self belief and their interpretation of the
classroom context.
A closely related assumption within
social cognitive theory is that people have an agency or ability to influence
their own behaviour and the environment in a purposeful, good-directed fashion
(Bandura, 2001). This belief conflicts with earlier form of behaviourism that
advocated a more rigorous form of environment determinism. Social cognitive
theory does not deny the importance of the environment in determining behaviour,
but it does argue that people can also, through forethought self-reflection and
self-regulatory processes, exert substantial influence over their own outcomes
and the environment more broadly.
A third assumption within social
cognitive theory is that learning can occur without an immediate change in
behaviour or more broadly that learning the demonstration of what has been
learned and distinct processes. One reason for this separation is that social
cognitive theory also assumes that learning involves not just the acquisition of
new behaviour, but also that of knowledge and cognitive skills, concepts,
abstract rules, values and other cognitive constructs. This division of learning
and behaviour is a shift from the position advocated by behavioural theories
that students can learn but not demonstrate the learning until motivated to do
so.
This theory emphasizes cognitive
compression as the cornerstone of adolescent behaviour. The adolescents here
acquires the mental activity to deal with the world around him, with this
developed mental capacity, he perceives and examines his environment, form
ideas and make inferences. The basic explanation of deviant behaviour or
delinquency is on mentality. Jean Piaget brought about the stage concept of
cognitive development, when people go through series of moral stages beginning
early in childhood and continuing through the adult years. Each stage of
development assumes a relatively a variant order in the course of development. Also
each stage is marked by a different view of right and wrong.
In
the view of positive attitude in learning gearing towards having interest more
on the main purpose of education which has been observed.......
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