FAMILY INCOME AND PARENTAL LEVEL OF EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT AS PREDICTORS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AMONG PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OGIDI EDUCATION ZONE OF ANAMBRA STATE; IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL MANAGEMENT

Abstract

This study investigated family income and parental educational attainment as predictors of juvenile delinquency among public secondary school students in Ogidi education zone of Anambra State. In all, two purposes, two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlational design. The sample size was 359 students in senior secondary school (SS2) in Ogidi Education Zone. The simple random sampling technique was used to choose the sample size from the population of 3457 senior secondary school students in SS2 in Ogidi Education Zone of Anambra State. A self- developed delinquency questionnaire titled ’students juvenile delinquency questionnaire’’ (SJDQ) was the instrument used for data collection for this study. The questionnaire has two sections A and B. Section A measured personal information and family income and parental level of education data while Section B contained 20 items which was used to seek the response of students on juvenile delinquency. The instrument was face and content validated by two experts in Educational Management and one expert from Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational Foundations, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through a test re-test method and Pearson product moment correlation co-efficient Analysis and the reliability Co-efficient of 0.75 for juvenile delinquency were obtained. The data collected was analysed using simple linear regression analysis for both the research questions and the hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that family income and parental level of educational attainment were modest contributors of juvenile delinquency among students in Ogidi Education Zone.  However, analysis of the hypothesis showed that family income and parental level of educational attainment significantly contributed to juvenile delinquency among students in the zone. Based on the findings of the study, the study recommended among others that the Federal and State government should try as much as they can to ensure, promote and encourage the financial empowerment programmes to ensure that families with low income are improved upon with the consequent reduction in delinquent behaviours of children.