DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND DEVIANT BEHAVIOR AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOLS’ STUDENTS IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined demographic factors and deviant behaviors among secondary schools’ students in south west Nigeria. The descriptive research design of the survey type was adopted for this study. The population of the study consisted 31,144 male and female students in all the public and private secondary schools in Southwest, Nigeria. The sample of this study consisted of 1890 students using multistage sampling procedure. An instrument designed by the researcher titled ‘Questionnaire on demographic factors and deviant behavior (QDFDB) was used to elicit data for this study. To ascertain the face and content validity of the instruments, copies were subjected to thorough screening by the experts. The reliability of the instrument was established through Cronbach's Alpha reliability test that yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.82, test method that was adjudged to be suitable for the study which were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Pearson Production Moment Correlation. Findings of the study revealed that gender and school location had significant relationship with deviant behavior among secondary schools’ students in Southwest Nigeria. It was recommended aong others that Irrespective of the location of schools, government should introduce and set a particular period aside for moral coaching. This would create more awareness and serve as a constant reminder to secondary schools’ students. The school should use suitable methods (such as counseling, punishment, scolding, flogging and so on) on any student that violate the rules and regulations of the school. More so, special attention should be paid to the male students in the schools since they are the ones that have tendency to deviate from the rules and regulation guiding the school.