Open Access Location of Mothers and Child Rearing Practices as a Predictor to Juvenile Delinquency Among Primary School Pupils in Borno State, Nigeria

This study surveyed Location of mothers and child rearing practices as a predictor to juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils in Borno state, Nigeria. The differences between child rearing practice among urban and rural mothers and the nature of delinquencies associated with children of mothers from the different locations were determined. The population of the study was all mothers of delinquent primary school pupils in rural and urban areas of Borno State, Nigeria and their delinquent children. Data was collected from eight hundred mothers in both rural and urban areas and the teachers of their delinquent children. Stratified purposive sampling was used to select the sample. Self-made instrument consisting of 55 items questionnaire and 26 items child delinquency rating scale with Alpha reliability index of 0.89 and 0.93 respectively were used to collect data for the study. Descriptive statistic (simple percentage, mean and standard deviation) and standard step wise multiple regression at alpha level of p<0.05 were used to analyze the data. Result indicated that there were differences in child rearing practices of rural and urban mothers and also differences in the juvenile delinquency associated with children of the different location. There is also positive relationship between child rearing and mother‟s location and juvenile delinquency of primary school pupils. It is recommended that Borno State Government should put in place social facilities and security in the rural area as absence of these could result in higher level of physical and social delinquency that is already common among children of the rural women. It is also recommended that a research be further conducted to find out why personal social and physical related delinquency are common among rural children of Borno state, Nigeria.


Introduction
Traditionally, mothers are the primary care givers of their children. Child rearing practice among mothers may vary with society and time and could be influenced by mothers" characteristics, but basic rules of child rearing like parents presenting a united front, setting boundaries and sticking to them, being consistent and practicing what one preaches to the child, cut across time, cultures and societies or tribes even in Borno state, Nigeria. (National Court Appointed Special Advocates 2004). The importance of these rules is implied in personality theories of Freud and Uba (1939); Erikson (1965) that mothers being primary care givers of their children play great roles in their children"s personality development. The child interprets and copies some acts and attitudes of adult towards him/her, and internalizes them as he/she grows. Collins (1988), in agreement with the implications of personality theories of both Freud and Erikson that stated that peers and teachers are important in child rearing, but the most significant teachings and child-rearing occur at home. This means that the position of parents especially the mothers and their children, and situations around them when raising their children can influence greatly the character of the developing children in terms of child delinquency.
Mothers" location in terms of rural and urban location could influence mothering style and could lead to lose structure. Collins (1988), observed that mothers" characteristics may create problems of self-esteem, selfactualization, self-acceptance, and affect the socialization of the child gradually or drastically and consequently lead to juvenile delinquency. Quoting an anonymous writer, General Superintendent of Christian Women Mirrow (2002) Said that "I have come to realize that neither the church nor the school can resurrect what the home puts to death. Power of the welfare of the society and few generation lies in the power of the home to do the job p.8". This equally implies that before the school age, parents especially mothers and where they live in terms of location that provides for sharing of feelings, consultation, companionship, stimulation, modeling and leadership for their children is something that no other person could do better than mothers as they would like to instill their values. The absence of consistency and continuity of mothers" care and conducive environment/location could lead to development of bad behavior in children.
Sociogenic theory posited that location of child in terms of local home environment, people and amenities that are found in the environment could influence child delinquency (Spergel, 1964;Sutherland and Cressey, 1960). (Resis and Rhodes, 1964). Communities that are socio economically deprived, especially in social amenities like schools, healthcare, communication, roads and security of life, and property and also lack of facilities, will have a problem of meeting need of her developing children. Ayodele (1990) in his study titled, "towards the effective amenities like good feeding and water management of pupil"s behavior in the primary schools", stated that sociological conditions in terms of living environment contribute to delinquency among pupils. Deprived environment he said, is characterized by poverty and lack of social amenities. This tends to affect the behavior of a child. Children from such environment become truants, bullies, thieves etc. because their needs are not adequately met. Similarly, Agbo (1997), in his study titled "effects of delinquent environment on academic achievement of primary six pupils in Army children"s school, Azare," discovered that location of child in terms of rural or urban environment influence delinquency in children. Twenty (20) delinquent children were used for study and it was discovered that all of the children lived in slums, over-crowded tenements, poor sanitary conditions and abject poverty. Wasser et al. (2003) did stated that child delinquency stems from a combination of factors that are economic, environmental and socially related.

Statement of the Problem
An ideal childrearing practice seems to be affected in Borno state, Nigeria as mothers" State seem to be affected by militating factors that are related to their locations. Consistent care, love, security, feeding and hygienic environment, training, communication and other basic needs given to children by mothers with degree of sameness, consistency that give developing children a sense of uprightness and trust in their locations today seems to have been destroyed in Borno State and this could be a problem for developing children.
Incidentally it seems that academic, physical and personal-social delinquency related behaviours like aggressiveness, Stealing truancy and destructiveness, bully and fighting which are commonly known as Juvenile delinquencies are now common characteristics of pupils in primary schools in Borno State. Could these be delinquent problems as a result of mothers" location and child rearing practices they use? This study is therefore designed to determine the mothers" location and childrearing practice as it relates to juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils in Borno State, Nigeria.

Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study is to determine if mothers" Location and child rearing practice in Borno State, Nigeria could be a predictor of delinquency among primary school pupils in Borno state, Nigeria. Specifically, the study will determine: The types of Child care practices used by rural and urban mothers in Borno State, Nigeria. -The differences in child rearing practices among children of rural and urban mothers in Borno State, Nigeria.

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The nature of juvenile delinquency among Children of rural and urban mothers in Borno state, Nigeria.

Research Questions
1. What types of child rearing practices do rural and urban mothers use in rearing their children in Borno State, Nigeria? 2. What are the differences between child rearing practice of mothers in rural and urban areas in Borno State, Nigeria? 3. What is the relationship between child rearing practices and mothers" location and juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils in Borno State, Nigeria?

Research Hypothesis
Location of child rearing mothers has no significant relationship with Juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils in Borno State, Nigeria.

Methodology
This study used survey method to examine the location of mothers of delinquent pupils in Borno State primary school and determine whether pupils" delinquent behaviour could be associated with their mothers" location and the types of child rearing practices they used. This method was used because the study is behaviour related and questionnaire and rating scale were therefore used to collect data. Jen (2002) noted that survey is suitable for behaviour related studies that deals with relationship between more two or more variables.
The target population for the study consisted of the mothers and the teachers of the delinquent children of six to eleven (6-11) years in public primary schools in Borno State Nigeria. A total of 940 delinquent pupils were identified and assessed by their teachers. The mothers of these delinquents automatically become the second sample. At the end of the field work, questionnaire filled by eight hundred (800) mothers were paired with the delinquency rating scale filled by the teachers of their delinquent children, were found to be useful for the study.
Two sets of researcher made instruments (55 questionnaire items for mothers and 26 items child delinquency rating scale for teachers) were presented with Alpha reliability of .89 and .93 respectively were used to collect data. Percentage, mean and standard deviation were computed to answer three research questions and standard step-wise multiple regressions at alpha level of p< 0.05 was used to test the null hypothesis.

Data Analysis, Results and Discussion
Appropriate statistical measures were used to ensure the raised research questions and results were also discussed. When a group mean is higher than the total mean, the child rearing practice used is good and when the standard deviation within the group is <1 or exactly ≤1, the deviation within the group is not much but when it is ≥1, the deviation with the group is much. The case of delinquency is also the same. When group mean is higher than total mean the level of delinquency is high and when the standard deviation within the group is <1 or exactly ≤1, the deviation within the group is much. In case of relationship between Location, child rearing practices and delinquency, when the F-ratio is higher than the F critical value, the statistical relationship is said to be positive.

Research Question 1: What type of child rearing do rural and urban mothers use in rearing their children in
Borno State, Nigeria?  Table 1 presents frequency distribution and percentages of types of child rearing practices used by rural and urban mothers in Borno State, Nigeria to supplement their child rearing practices. Observation from the table shows that both rural and urban mothers use all types of child rearing but Day care is used in the urban areas only.

Research Question 2:
What are the differences between child rearing practices of mothers in rural and urban areas of Borno State, Nigeria?
Research Question 3: what is relationship between child rearing practice and location of mother and juvenile delinquency of pupils in primary schools of Borno State, Nigeria?  shows the mean and standard deviation of childrearing practice of mothers and delinquency of school pupils in urban and rural areas in Borno State Mothers located in urban areas of the state have means and standard deviations in child rearing practices of 4.09 + 2.30, 6.41 + 3.29, 3.25 + 1.78, 5.91 +3.15, 5.91 + 3.15, 5.91 + 3.16 and 5.33 + 2.76 in feeding, clearing, teaching and training, security love and communication and discipline respectively. The pupils also have means and standard deviations of 4.56 + 1.34, 7.35 + 2.32, and 3.32 + 58 in academic related delinquency, personal social related delinquency and physical related delinquency respectively.
Mothers located in rural areas of Borno State have mean and standard deviation of 5.39 + 2.31, 6.79 + 3.00, 3.49 + 1.64, 6.36 + 2.89, 6.36 + 2.89, and 5.71 + 2.51 in practice of feeding, cleaning, teaching and training, security, love and communication and discipline respectively. Their children also have means standard deviations of 3.48 + 1.37, 7.49 + 2.36, and 3.47 + 3.47 + 78 in academic, personal social and physical related delinquency respectively.
The table shows that mothers in both rural and urban areas have better practice than mothers in urban areas. Mothers in rural areas also above average score in each area of childrearing practices even though mothers in rural areas have higher level of personal social and physical related delinquency. The table also shows that there is great variance in rearing practices and delinquency among both urban and rural mothers in Borno State.   Table 3 is a forward step wise multiple regression on location of mothers, child rearing and juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils in Borno State. The table shows that the independent variables mothers location and child rearing practices entered in the equation yielded a multiple R = 845, reflecting their contribution on juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils Borno State. The r square = 637 indicating 64% variance observed in juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils as accounted by the independent variables entered, presents relationship between location and juvenile delinquency. The Fratio of 7.538 when compared with the critical Fratio 2.38 is significantly higher. This shows there is significant statistical relationship between mother"s location and child rearing practice with juvenile delinquency. A change in the standard deviation of mothers location and child rearing practice amounts to change in the standard deviation of juvenile delinquency.

Null Hypothesis
The null hypothesis child rearing practices and location of mothers has no significant relationship with juvenile delinquency among primary pupils in Borno State, Nigeria is therefore not accepted. This implies that location of mothers compared to child rearing practice, has predictive power on juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils in Borno State, Nigeria.

Summary of Findings
Analysis of results in this study revealed the following findings: -1. Mothers in both rural and urban areas use various child rearing practices to supplement their child care practices. 2. Mothers in rural areas of Borno State have better child rearing practices than those in urban areas. 3. There are variances between and among child rearing practices of mothers in rural and urban areas of Borno State. 4. Children of mothers in rural areas have higher level of personal social and physical related juvenile delinquency, while those in urban area have higher level of academic delinquency. 5. Location of child rearing mothers can predict on juvenile delinquency in Borno state, Nigeria. in pupils of primary schools

Discussion
Regarding research question one (1) which sought to determine the types of child care practices mothers in Borno use to supplement their practices, it was observed from the result of the study (table1) that mother care, Mix care, Nanny care, Neighborhood care and sibling/relation care are practices used by both rural and urban mothers in Borno State. Day care practice is only used by urban mothers. The finding confirmed observation by Hillam (2000); Mallum (2001); Phillips (2002) and Arms (2004) that there is shift in child rearing practices and absence of mothers are being observed in their homes. The finding in table one (1) above shows that mothers in rural areas and urban areas actually practice good child rearing (above average), but they still have children that are delinquents. This could be as result of the nature of the supplement child care they employ to supplement their practices or the emotional state of the child rearing mothers which this study did not cover.
Regarding Research question two and three which sought to determine if there is any difference between child rearing practices of urban and rural mothers in Borno State, and there is any relationship between Location of child rearing mother and child delinquency has relationship within mothers from both rural and urban areas practice good child rearing (above average) though mothers from rural areas in Borno State have better childrearing practices than mothers from urban areas of the State. It was also observed that children of mothers from rural areas have higher level of personal social and physical related delinquencies. Though they have better child rearing practices they also have higher level of physical and personal social delinquencies. The high standard deviations observed in the result show that great variance exists among child rearing practices mothers used and delinquency among their children.
This result seems to confirm observations made by Erikson's ego theory of personally, psychogenic and sociogenic theories of delinquency that faulty culture, community and environment have influence on the development of delinquent behaviours. Though rural mothers practice good child rearing, necessary amenities like good water, food, school, roads, communication system and absence of law enforcement agencies in rural areas could impinge on the personality development and general behaviour of children brought up in rural areas (Collins, 1988;Sutherland and Cressey, 1960). McCord et al. (1959) Again, one could observe that though the rural mothers practice good child-rearing practice, some other factors like the emotional stage of mothers could influence the behavior of the child especially now that the security of mothers and their children are not secured due to the activities of the Boko Haram insurgence.
As for the null hypothesis, it was observed that location of mothers and child rearing mothers could to some degree predict juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils. When the location of child rearing mother is not conducive, there is high tendency of development of physical and personal social deviant behaviour in children being raised.

Conclusion
Findings of the study show that location of child rearing mothers has relationship with juvenile delinquency among primary school pupils in Borno state. Though rural mothers have best child rearing practices compared to the urban mothers, their children have high level of personal social and physical related delinquency.

Recommendation
Borno State Government should endeavour to put in place social amenities and facilities like good schools, security outfit, hospitals and communication means that have been destroyed by terrorists. Absence of these could make the community devise means of helping their developing children. Further research could be conducted to find out why personal social and physical related delinquency are common in the rural areas of Borno state, Nigeria.