ABSTRACT
This study investigated sibling
relationship and social networking as correlates of adolescents’ adjustment in
secondary schools. The area of the study was Udi education zone of Enugu State,
Nigeria. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. The sample
of the study was 420 senior secondary class two students drawn through
multistage sampling technique, from a population of 2446. One instrument-
Sibling Relationship, Social Networking Involvement and Adolescents’ School
Adjustment Questionnaire (SRSNIASAQ) in three clusters was used for data collection.
Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation was used to answer the research questions
while Multiple Regression was used to analyze the hypotheses. Major findings of
the study revealed that the nature of adolescents’ sibling relationship is
positive. The extent of adolescents’ involvement in social networking is low.
Adolescents adjust positively academically and negatively
socio-psychologically. There is a positive relationship between sibling
relationship and adolescents’ adjustment in school. There is a positive
relationship between social networking and adolescents’ adjustment in school.
There was no significant difference in the mean score of male and female
adolescents’ adjustment in school. Therefore gender is not a significant
predictor of adolescents’ adjustment in school. There was no significant
difference in the mean score of urban and rural adolescents’ adjustment in
school. Therefore location is not a significant predictor of adolescents’
adjustment in school. Based on the findings, it was recommended that adolescent
students be given orientation geared towards building healthy relationship with
siblings and other social networks through cooperation and support. Workshops
and seminars should be organized for the students to guide them on the importance
of social networking in their life, especially for academic engagements. Social
networking developers should be sensitized through symposium on the need to
create more educational sites and encourage the young ones to participate in
such sites. The social networking developers should also build in parental
control as a measure to control sharing and viewing explicit contents that may
not be healthy for the adolescents. Parents, guardians and the society at large
should be sensitized on the need for the adolescents to have good school
adjustment. They should be made to understand that how a child is reared goes a
long way to determine the later adjustment in life. Children should be treated
with equal love and care.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
of the Study
Adjustment
is necessary in one’s daily life. Life is full of challenging situations and
individuals make frantic, but, sometimes forlorn effort to conquer it.
Individuals struggle to get adjusted to the situation they find themselves in
school. For instance, how to reconcile parents’ and peer norms, whether to obey
rules and regulations or not, whether to give in to peer pressure or not, to
engage in risky behaviour, whether to continue schooling or drop out, whether
to build a working relation with others or be isolated has to do with
adolescents’ adjustment.
Adjustment
is the interaction between a person and his environment. Birch & Ladd
(1996) see adjustment as the individual’s struggle to get along or fit into his
or her social environment. Adjustment is a state in which the needs of the
individual on one hand and the claim on the environment on the other hand, are
fully satiated (Haars, 2000). Haars further stated that if the needs are not
fully satiated, there will be maladjustment among or within the organism of
such environment. An individual who has experienced significant level of
adjustments acts purposefully. He is real to himself. Adjustment in the
researcher’s view could be seen as the individual’s way of adapting to changing
situations. This is because the environment changes over time and there is need
for a corresponding change in the life of the person in order to survive. How
one adjusts in a particular situation depends upon one’s personal
characteristics and also the circumstances of the situation (Arkoff in Mangal,
2007). An individual is adjusted when he copes well with himself and with his
environment. Proper adjustment will require that the adolescent within the
confines of his various needs acquire the necessary skills and competences to
be able to deal with the environment in a realistic way.
The school is a veritable ground where an adolescent’s adjustment is paramount
and holds
sway on other outcomes.
School
adjustment is construed historically in terms of children’s academic progress
or achievement (Birch & Ladd, 1996). This outcome is important but, being
very limited, it narrows the search for precursors and events in children’s
environments that may affect adjustment. On a broader level, one might think of
school adjustment as involving not only children’s progress and achievement but
also their attitude toward school, anxieties, loneliness, social support, and
academic motivation such as engagement, avoidance and absences (Roeser, 1998).
Newman (2000) construed school adjustment as the process of adapting to the
role of being a student and to various aspects of the school environment.
Failure to adjust can lead to mental health issues and school refusal or school
dropout. Bond & Compass (2000) asserts that the principle of school
adjustment focuses attention on the substance of the school environment;
structures, norms, attitudes and policies which, when taken together,
constitute the demand characteristics of the school. This principle assesses
what the schools require of students as they cope with the school environment.
School adjustment is the individual’s ability to cope with the demands of the
school learning (Mangal, 2007). In the researcher’s view, school adjustment has
to do with being emotionally intelligent, psychologically balanced, socially
and academically competent, and the ability to cope with the activities that
goes on in the school environment.
An
emotionally intelligent adolescent may be able to understand emotions, such as
shame, guilt, and empathy in oneself and others. A psychologically balanced
adolescent experiences school connectedness, is in touch with reality, thinks
positively and influences his environment favourably. A socially competent adolescent
obeys school rules, is respectful, exhibits pro-social behaviours and abhors
anti-social behaviours. An academically competent adolescent excels in
schoolwork, persists at a given task, and is good at problem solving.
Adolescents are susceptible to constant changes in environmental demands. This
is partly due to the corresponding change in their developmental life. The
features associated with
this stage are very critical and delicate. Adolescence is a period when
adjustments must be
made if the individual would live a normal life in the society. Adolescence is
a period when
an individual learns to adjust to the complex series of social roles expected
of during adulthood.
Adolescence
is the period of transition from childhood to adulthood, starting from around
10-12 years old, up to 18-21 years old. The
transition period is characterized by rapid biological, physical, emotional, and cognitive changes that take
place at this time (Santrock, 2007). Biologically, it begins with the onset of
puberty. This is the time of life during which the reproductive organ become
capable of functioning. Physically, it is characterized with a growth spurt.
The individual at this stage experiences a rapid increase in height.
Cognitively, the stage is characterized by the increase in critical thinking,
reasoning ability and the way he perceives his environment. Emotionally, the
stage is fraught with affection, aggression and fear. This could be as a result
of the changes that take place in the body. Some adolescents are less satisfied
with their body while some are more satisfied with their body. Coinciding with
these changes is an increased frequency of interaction with opposite-sex peer,
which doubles the number of potential risky behaviours such as romance and
premarital sex (Craig, Pepler, Connolly, and Henderson, 2001). These
transitions make adolescence a time of rapid change, which may cause
adolescents to be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of
maladjustment. According to Igbo in Onwuasoanya (2008), adolescence is a period
when developmental changes are seen in girls from ages 10 – 12 and in boys from
ages 12 – 14, when the capability for sexual reproductive system starts.
Adolescence as defined by Rideout, Mellisa, Allison, Seeta & Betssy, (2012)
is a time of life that is both exhilarating and daunting. It can be fraught
with excitement and disappointment, self-confidence and insecurity,
companionship and loneliness.
For the purpose of this study, adolescence is a developmental
period between late childhood
and young adulthood. Adolescence period can be a
time of both disorientation and discovery.
The transitional period can bring up issues of independence and self-identity. Adolescence as a period of strain, storm, and stress is as
a result of problems associated with development and the changes the individual
undergoes in every aspect of his life during this period. The period of
adolescence is usually characterized with conflicts. This is particularly true
in relationship with their parents, siblings and peers. Data reveals that
between 5% and 15% of adolescents are antisocial and excessively rebellious of
adult authority (Collins & Laursen, 2004). They added that disagreement
grow in number and severity throughout adolescence as they seek out autonomy
and independence from parental rules. Conflicts are typically about rule
negotiation, with adolescents seeking more independence and parents struggling
to accommodate them.
Successful resolution of problem of this period could
be as a result of the orientation adolescents get from the various agents of
socialization one of which is the family. At the helm of affairs of the family
are the parents. Others include immediate siblings who are the most powerful
influence on children’s development (Landry, Smith & Swank, 2006). The
child’s behaviour is affected by the way he interacts with siblings. A sibling
is a brother or a sister. Most brothers and sisters share the same mother and
father. But sometimes siblings have the same mother but different father or the
reverse – the same father and different mothers. Nielson (1996) described
siblings as two or more individuals having one or both parents in common; a
brother or sister. Egbule (2009) sees siblings as relations of the same parents
living together in the same household. Winch and Goodman (1991) describes
siblings as childhood constant companions, sharing the same friends and the
same games. Sibling often grow up in the same household, they have a large
amount of exposure to one another. Operationally, siblings could be seen as
those who share the same parents and who grew up together in the same
household. Siblings have the responsibility of transmitting values, rules....
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