INFLUENCE OF CHILD ABUSE ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study explored how child abuse influences the academic achievement of secondary school students in Anambra State. Its main objectives were to determine the causes of child abuse and explore strategies for its prevention. Five research questions were answered and three hypotheses tested in the study. The study adopted a convergent mixed-methods research design. the research combined both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The target population included 850 teachers, 20,131 SS2 students, while the sample consisted of 81 teachers, 254 SS2 students (110 males and 144 females) from 21 selected public secondary schools in Anambra State using simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Data were collected using questionnaire titled Influence of Child Abuse on the Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students in Anambra State (ICAAASSSAS). The questionnaire was grouped into 10 items on causes of child abuse, 5 items on physical abuse, 5 items on emotional abuse, 5 items on sexual abuse, 5 items on neglect abuse, and 10 items on measures to prevent child abuse in secondary schools in Anambra state making a total of 40 items for the study. The response option for the questionnaire was a four-point Likert scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD). Content validity was confirmed through expert review, and the split-half method was applied to assess the reliability of the quantitative instruments, yielding coefficients of 0.91 for causes of child abuse; 0.76 for physical abuse; 0.71 for emotional abuse; 0.88 for sexual abuse; 0.61 for neglect abuse and 0.96 for measures to prevent child abuse with an overall reliability of 0.81. Quantitative data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation with SPSS version 26.0, and results were displayed in tables while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.  In taking decisions on the research questions, mean item rating that falls below 2.50 were taken to indicate disagreed and never while mean rating of 2.50 or above were taken to indicate agreed and always. In testing the null hypotheses, if t-calculated is equal to or greater than t-critical at 0.05 level of significance and the appropriate degree of freedom, the null hypothesis was rejected, but if otherwise, they were not be rejected. Findings from the study revealed among others that both the teachers and students agreed that the items in Table 1 are the causes of child abuse among secondary school students in Anambra State. It was recommended among others that parents should actively participate in educational workshops and community initiatives to strengthen their role in supporting and protecting their children from abuse.