THE EXTENT TO WHICH SOME UNHEALTHY BEHAVIOUR AMONG STUDENTS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS COULD BE CORRECTED BY PROVIDING FOR THEIR NEEDS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

The history of adjustment is as old as the human race. The process starts at birth and terminate at death (Onyejiaku, 1991). It is a household word, and life is a continuous process of adjustment. Adjustment is a process of attempting to meet both one’s inner needs and the demands placed on one by the physical and social environment. It is a kind of situation that accommodate frustration which in inevitable in the life of man. Some students have everything going for them: life but still do not know what their own lives are all about. Some lack career goals and as a result it becomes a source of anxiety. Such students are found facing challenge associated with adjustment. Each day, people make countless adjustments in a variety of areas including social adjustment. Social adjustment incorporates components such as the ability to interact with others, interpersonal and human relationships, ability to participate in social activities as well as conforming to social norms, rules and regulations in the society.

Social adjustments problems are prominent in the secondary school system. One observes with dismay a variety of maladjustment behaviours among adolescents in Secondary School system, which includes truancy, drug abuse, deviance delinquency, aggression and so on. Students are often seen loitering the streets during the hours; they ought to be in school studying. Social adjustment varies from one situation to another and comes in degrees. A student may get along with teachers and have many friends but may develop a bad case of “test nerves” whenever he or she has an examination to take.

Another student may be reasonably happy and well; adjusted but may bite his or her fingernails when called upon to answer a question in the classroom. Adolescents have their specific needs, these needs according to Havighurst (1972) include: the need to accept one’s physique, the need to accept a masculine or feminine role, the need for emotional independence, the need to develop relationship with one another, the need to select a marriage partner and prepare for marriage and family life; the need to develop intellectual skills and concepts necessary for civil competence and the need for religion. These needs are largely products of the interaction with the social environment. Going by personal observation and study, there is a prevalence of antisocial behaviour and maladjustments in most schools. The causes of such behaviours have been traced largely to unmet needs of adolescents in the schools examined.

Furthermore, the statistics gathered from more than ten (10) schools in Surulere (averagely about fifty, percent of the public schools in the locality and among two hundred (200) students used as specimen, indicates that needs do create tension and make students restless, aggressive, defiant, impudent, delinquent, unsocialized, compulsive, potentially violent and  repulsive. These characteristics constitute maladjustment and a person who is struggling to meet these needs is striving towards adjustment. In a bid to solve moral and personality maladjustment problem among the students in our educational system, the Federal Government in its National policy on Education (1998), stipulated that Guidance Counsellor shall be appointed in post-primary institutions.

The policy further stated that Guidance and Counselling s hall also feature in teacher education programmes. Adolescence is one of the transitional stages in life. According to Ambron (1981), it is the bridge between childhood and adulthood or a period between childhood and adulthood or a period between the onset of puberty and maturity. Adolescence can be seen as both biological and social in nature. The beginning of adolescence is marked by biological changes. At the secondary school level, a great number of secondary school students must have become adolescents. They therefore face problems during the long period of growing up. These problems are both biologically and socially rooted.

Physical changes can create problems as well as the society in which the adolescent, finds himself or herself so that adolescents in one culture are bound to behave differently from those in another. In Lagos metropolis, one observes that while some senior secondary students are socially well adjusted are able to observe school rules and regulations, others are highly maladjusted and are not capable of manifesting desirable behavioural characteristics. .In most schools, there is a prevalence of antisocial behaviour and maladjustment which could have arise because of unmet needs of adolescents in schools.  Denga (1988) stated that we have needs, which we must try to meet. According to him, unmet needs are those needs that create tension and make us restless, aggressive, uncooperative, impudent, delinquent, unsocialised, compulsive, potentially violent, cranky, and repulsive. These are frequent cases of students’ aggressiveness against other students and even teachers, the menace of secret cult activities, cases of theft, burglary, truancy, loitering and examination malpractice among others.

In one of the secondary schools in Victoria Island (Government College, Victoria Island), it was reported that a student fought with a teacher during the school session and established him. To the knowledge of t his researcher, it appears there is no organized study aimed at determining the needs satisfaction and social adjustment in schools. The present research is n therefore aimed at filing this gap by determining the needs satisfaction and social adjustment of Senior Secondary two (2) students in Lagos State.

1.2 Theoretical framework of the study

The background for this study is entered on needs satisfaction and social adjustment of senior secondary two (S.S.2) students bearing in mind that theory undergirds systematic result-oriented action. The theories that form the background of this theory are Maslow’s needs theory and Alfred individual psychology theory.

Maslow’s Needs Theory

Maslow (1954) proposed a third force view with regard to adjustment as an alternative to psychoanalytic and learning theory. He asserted that every individual posseses an essential inner nature which is intrinsic and natural, with a certain degree of hereditary antecedent which in strongly persistent. The inner native is believed to be shaped by experience and interactions with others. It may be self-created since individuals are unique. Maslow is of the opinion the adolescents should be allowed to male their own choices. Parents and teachers should therefore have faith in their children, to allow and help them grow, but should not try to force them to grow or attempt to shape their behaviour. The best way to do this to take into account the nature of human nature, which Maslow believes through the fulfiment of lower and higher needs.

In situation where children are not helped to satisfy them; deficiency needs, they become what Maslow terms bad choosers. Where they are left entirely on their own, they will possibly develop one or more types of problem behaviours which may result in maladjustment. Children who are helped to satisfy their deficiency needs are likely to become good choosers, capable of making their own growth decision (Biehler 1974). Freedom of choice, according to Maslow is only for children who have had deficiency needs well satisfied. He believes that a child must feel comfortable, secure and loved before experiencing urges to know and appreciate. This is what Maslow means when he urges Parents and teachers to help children grow. A child who is brought up in this manner, where needs are properly met and freedom of choice in given, has a greater chance of becoming socially well adjusted in life. Maslow identifies human needs to be organized in a series of levels in a hierarchy of importance consisting of five distinct needs.

1. Basic physiociological needs

2. Safety needs

3. Belonging and love needs

4. Self-esteem needs

5. Self-actualization needs or the need for personal fulfillment.

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