JUVENILE DELINQUENT BEHAVIOUR: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DAY AND BOARDING STUDENTS

Abstract

For decades now, juvenile deviant behaviours has become a major concern to Psychologists, Criminologists, Educationists and the society at large, and many scholars have studied its moral, social and developmental implications. Comparing the day and boarding students on juvenile delinquent behaviours is the interest of the present paper. The Social Learning Theory of Rotter (1954) captures the most credible explanation for delinquent behaviours among adolescents, since it is agreed that behaviour is socially learned through the interaction between environment and one’s psychological processes. A total of 377 students comprising 190 males and 187 females, 185 day students and 192 boarders, age ranged between 14 and 17 years, with a mean age of 16.22 and standard deviation of .71 to participate in the study. It was hypothesized that d) Day students would significantly show delinquent behaviours more than boarding students; b) Male students would significantly differ from Female students on delinquent behaviours. The Psychopathic Deviate Scale by Hathaway and Mckinley (1967) was the main instrument for the study, which randomly selected participants from secondary schools in Anambra State. Independent t-test statistics was used to compare day and boarding students, male and female on juvenile delinquent behaviours. Results strongly suggested that day students showed juvenile delinquent behaviour than the boarding students and that male students significantly differed from female students on juvenile delinquent behaviours. It was therefore concluded that rather than posing a threat to the development of the adolescent/students, boarding school helps to nurture an adolescent student to proper development and necessary adjustments.
Keywords: Juvenile Delinquent Behaviour, Day and Boarding Students