JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study investigated Juvenile Delinquency and Academic Performance of Students in Tertiary Institutions in Rivers State. The study was anchored on Anomic theory of 1940 by Robert Merton. Merton’s theory explains that Juvenile delinquency occurs because the juveniles do not have the means to make themselves happy. Their goals are unattainable within legal means so they find unlawful means by which to attain their goals. The research design for this study was correlational deign. As at the time of this study, the total population of office and information management students at undergraduate level was 400 which made up the population of the study. The sample size of this study was 196 undergraduate students.  This was determine using the Krejue and Morgan sample size determination table, drawn via the use of simple random sampling technique. The instrument used for this study was titled juvenile Delinquency and Academic performance of students’ questionnaire. (JDPSQ). Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using regression analysis at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that juvenile delinquency affects students’ academic performance negatively. The study revealed that, juvenile delinquencies associating with home environment, school environment and peer group have strong but negative relationship with the academic performance of the students. Hence, the study recommends that parents should create and enabled environment that will encourage them to study their books. As well, parents are advice to live together to give joint support to their educational welfare.