By Dr Racheal D. Uche, Evelyn Ijeoma Orji & Dr Maria Emenebe Ngwu
Abstract
In school, some children are observed to be well adjusted and disciplined while some others seem highly delinquent. The researchers suspect that family structure and gender have roles in orienting some students towards delinquent behaviour. This study, which adopted ex-post facto design, investigated the influence of family types and gender on delinquent behaviour manifestation by students. The research area is Calabar, Nigeria. The population is made up of all teachers in 24 public secondary schools in the two local government areas making up Calabar. This amounts to 1,290 teachers (392 males and 998 females). Proportionate sampling was applied to select the sample for this study. Hence 328 respondents, out of 413 teachers sampled, were admitted into the study. Questionnaire was used for data collection; while descriptive and inferential statistical tools were used to analyze data collected. The findings show, among others, that family structure and gender has significant relationship with delinquent behaviour manifestation among junior secondary school students. Implications for education and counselling practice was suggested with the view to minimizing delinquency among students in the school system.