Child abuse and school drop-out among pupils of lower and middle basic education in Biase and Yakurr Local Government Areas of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study sought to determine the prevalent child abuse occurrences and their relationship with school drop-out among pupils of lower and middle basic level of education in Biase and Yakurr Local Government Areas of Cross River State, Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted. The sample consists of 877pupils of elementary level of education in Biase and Yakurr Local Government Areas who have dropped-out of school. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire captioned, Child Abuse and School Drop-Out Questionnaire (CASDOQ). Four dimensions of child abuse were investigated. These were physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse and child labour abuse. For analysis of data, Pearson's Product Moment Correlation (r) and multiple regression were used. The hypothesis reflects the five predictor variables of abuse; psychological abuse, sexual abuse, child labour abuse and school dropout among pupils in lower and middle Basic Education Biase and Yakurr.