Parental Socio-economic Status and Attitude of Towards Cultism in Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State: Implication for Counselling
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© Kamla-Raj 2009 J Hum Ecol, 26(1): 65-69 (2009)
Parental Socio-economic Status and Attitude of Towards
Cultism in Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State:
Implication for Counselling
Agnes Ebi Maliki
Department of Educational Foundations, Niger Delta University, P.M.B.071,
Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria
E-mail: agnesmaliki@yahoo.com
KEYWORDS Attitude. Cultism. Socio-economic Status. Counselling
ABSTRACT The study sought to examine the influence of parental socio-economics status and attitude of students
towards cultism. The study was carried out in Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Five hundred and seven
two (572) undergraduates were the respondents. The study revealed that parental socio-economic status significantly
influences the attitude of students towards cultism. The study also indicated that students who are from high and
average socio-economic status are most significantly influenced. Also counseling implications were advocated.
INTRODUCTION culminate in the manifestation of anti-social
behaviours such as cultism. These students most
The family has many functions in societies. It often depend on psycho-active drugs and groups
serves as an economic unit. It assumes responsi- to carry out these anti-social behaviours. These
bility for a small number of people as they move anti-social behaviours are often employed to make
through life. Its most widely recognized function up for their inadequacies of not being able to
is the care and socialization of new generation. accept their poverty and low social status in the
Parents are usually considered the primary agents mist of their peers.
of socialization because their influence begins Kallaghan (1972) observed that there is a
so early in life. Although the family is supposed positive correlation between socio-economic
to care for, socialize and optimize the potential of status of parents and students attitudes and
children, it sometimes falls short of these goals. behaviour manifestations. He opined that the
Children may be neglected. relationship between the two variables may be
It has been generally observed that people the economic advantage of the parents, which
are not equal in terms of status and achievements. enables them to give their children the materials
The existence of many strata in the society is money can buy. A child from a high socio-
thought to be natural. Researchers believe that economic background is enriched with
socio-economics status of the students’ parents necessities of life, receives stimulating experi-
has a great influence on their attitude towards ences that translates into a healthy attitude
objects and phenomena. Okon (2006) emphasized towards life generally.
that socio-economics status of a person affect The 1979 Federal Constitution, Section 35(4)
his or her attitude and life chances. These defined a secret society as “…a society or associa-
attitudes include: positive or negative attitude tion, not being a solely cultural or religious body,
towards academic, food, dressing, drug use and that uses secret signs, oaths, rites or symbols.
abuse and the group the individual belongs. (a) Whose meeting or activities are held in secret;
In the same vein, Aluede and Maliki (1998) (b) Whose members are under oath, obligation
emphasized the socio-economics status of parents or other threat to promote the interest of its
as a major determinant of the attitude of students members or to aid one another under
towards anti-social behaviors. They further stated circumstances without regard to merit, fair-
that students of low socio-economic families lack play or justice”.
basic necessities of life and are both economically The above are the features of cultism on
weak and socially depressed. Such students Nigeria University Campuses. In Nigerian
develop certain negative psychological feeling campuses, there have being experiences of blood
which often lead to frustration and could letting, massacre, maiming and killings. Cultism66 AGNES EBI MALIKI
is a social ill that has placed so much debris on its Ezewu (1987) posited that socio-economic
victims. Innocent students suffer humiliations and status can affect the academic performance of
molestations from cultist. students in terms of early attendance at school,
It is sad to think that cultism has continued to attendance of best schools and the provision of
thrive in Nigeria university campuses, irrespective necessary materials. The students from low socio-
of moves and efforts by concerned organizations; economic status would find it difficult to obtain
university authorities and the government to his needs from his parents. So he or she may be
salvage this situation. lured into cultism in order to meet his needs.
The question therefore is that why are the Giddens (1996) in a longitudinal study of the
university undergraduates joining cults, is it as influence of socio-economic status of parents on
result of their parental socio-economic status or children’s behaviour found out that children with
what is responsible? The question guiding this behavioural problems come from families with low
study is that has parental socio-economic status socio-economic background.
any significant influence on the attitude of Also Chauhan (2002) posited that, there is a
students towards cultism? positive correlation between poverty and crime
To answer the research question, this hypo- involving very high earnings and very low risks.
thesis is posed and tested. There is no significant He observed that the highest percentage of
influence of parental socio-economic status and criminals come from low socio-economic
students’ attitude towards cultism. background. Furthermore, he observed that all
persons who come from under-privilege class are
LITERATUREREVIEW criminals. The crucial factor in poor homes is that
parents cannot fulfill the legitimate needs of their
Socio-economic status refer to the social and children. This financial incapability makes
economic position occupied by parents in the students vulnerable to the deceit of cultism, who
society, Ivor (1978) defined it as a level made up deceives them that they will empower them and
of individuals who deem themselves equal due meet their needs only to end up being a cultist.
to similarities in family background, level of On his part, Ekpo (2000) view socio-economic
education, occupation, race and attitude towards status as a complex phenomenon which exerts
social issues. Adebayo (1981) observed that the pervasive influence on all aspect of one’s life. He
social status of individuals is a reflection of their noted that socio-economic status is a liability that
economic status and he went further to explain renders students vulnerable to the mischievous
that socio-economic status is usually a measure antics of cultists in order to make ends meet.
of the income and occupation of the individual, Ukpong (1999) observed that socio-economic
irrespective of his or her educational or social status has some sociological implication on the
standing. According to him this has a tremendous society. She explained that crime rates like cultism,
influence on students’ behaviour. gangsters, rape, street life such as hawking,
Caldwell (1990) posited that in the past prostitution and drug addiction are seriously on
societal norms and values pervaded the society the increase because of poverty.
through socialization of the young ones and even Similarly, Essien (2003) in his study on socio-
adults in the family, schools and religious economic status and social adjustment
institutions. He noted that norms and values discovered that out of the 200 students that
relating to honesty, honour, integrity and constituted his sample only 110 representing 55
diligence were the focus of socialization. However, per cent were well socially adjusted to school
he pointed out that when modernization came programmes. The remaining 90 representing 45
individualization and self-assertiveness per cent were not properly socially adjusted. The
accompanied it. These features of modernization reason being that rich parents provide their
negatively affected traditional society norms with children with conducive house environment,
regards to human behaviour. To this end, majority good food and other psychological needs that
of people want to get rich quickly regardless of help them to adjust socially while the students
the means of wealth and the adverse effect on from low socio-economic status tend not to adjust
their children. This therefore encourages their socially probably because of their homes are
children to encourage their children to engage in unstable, their means of livelihood are hardly
anti-social behaviour such as cultism. available and as such they become withdrawn,PARENTAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AND ATTITUDE OF TOWARDS CULTISM 67
socially maladjusted and as expected become research assistants. For the respondents confi-
highly vulnerable to cultism. dentiality of their responses and strict adherence
However, Denga and Denga (1998) Aluede and to individual privacy were fully assured.
Maliki (1998), Anchor (1999) and Obini (2005) are
of the view that some wealthy parents over- ANALYSES AND RESULTS
pamper their children providing more than what
they actually require. This, of course, provides the To establish if parental socio-economic status
children with the means to purchase fire-arms and has any significant influence on the attitude of
other materials used by cultists. They went further students towards cultism, the mean score and
to reveal that most often parents who are of high standard deviation of all the responses were
socio-economic status have little or no time for computed, students were categorized under low
their homes and their children are left to be brought parental socio-economic status, average socio-
up by house helps and significant adults around economic status, and high parental socio-
who may lead them to develop the wrong attitude economic status as shown in Table 1.
towards social vices such as cultism.
Table 1: Mean and standard deviation of influence
of parental socio-economic status on students
METHODOLOGY attitude towards cultism.
Parental socio- n x
The study was carried out in Niger Delta economic status
University, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The research Low 259 53.31
design adopted for his study is Ex-post facto design. Average 176 55.77
Sample: The sample of this study consisted High 137 58.25
of five hundred and seventy-two (572) Total 572 55.25
undergraduates drawn from a total population of
five thousand and two (5002) undergraduates To test the hypothesis that stated that there is
from the nine faculties of the university. no significant influence of parental socio-economic
Measures: The questionnaire titled Student’s status and students’ attitude towards cultism. One
Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ) was used for data way Analysis of Variance was used to analyze the
collection. The instrument was made up of three data. The result is shown in Table 2.
parts. Part A of the instrument requested of the The presentation of result in Table 2 shows
students personal background data. Part B of the that there is a significant influence of parental
instrument was used to elicit information on the socio-economic status on students’ attitude
respondents’ attitude towards cultism. Part C of towards cultism (F=12.25; P>.05). The null
the instrument measured the respondents’ parental hypothesis was rejected because the calculated
socio-economic status. All the items in section B F-value of 3.00 at .05 alpha level with 2 and 569
and C were rated on a four-point Likert type scale degrees of freedom. Given the significant F-value,
ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. a detailed multiple comparison analysis using
The questionnaire was content validated by Fisher’s Least Square Difference (LSD) was done
professors of Psychology, Guidance and Counse- to determine exactly which parental socio-
lling and Measurement and Evaluation. The Text- economic status influenced students’ attitude
Retest reliability method was adopted to determine towards cultism. The result of the analysis is
the reliability of the instrument, which yielded presented in Table 3.
reliability co-efficient estimates of 0.93. The result shows that students of high
Procedure: The questionnaires were adminis- parental socio-economic status had a high
tered and collected by the researcher and two attitude towards cultism than students of low
Table 2: One way analysis of variance of the influ-ence of parental socio-economic status on students
attitude towards cultism.
Sources of variable Sum of squares DF MS F
Between group 2259.374 2 1129.687 12.25*
Within group 52463.375 569 92.203
Total 54722.748 571
Significant at .05; Critical F = 3.0068 AGNES EBI MALIKI
Table 3: Fisher’s LSD multiple comparison analysis economic status significantly influences the
of the influence of parental socio-economic status attitude of students towards cultism. This has
on students’ attitude towards cultism. implication for counsellors. Consellors should
Parental socio- Low Average High organize workshops, seminars and symposium
economic status (n=259) (n=176) (n=137) for parents where effective parenting will be
Low 53.31 a -2.47 b -4.94 discussed. Parents should be encouraged to visit
Average -2.63* c -55.77 -2.47 their children in the school so that they can do a
High -4.87* -2.26* 58.25 follow up of their children’s progress in school
MSW = 92.203
and also know the kind of friends they keep. This
*Significant at .05 constant check on children can sustain their
parental socio-economic status (t= -4.87; p>.05) educational and moral development.
and average parental socio-economic status Counsellors should organize orientation
(t=2.63; p>.05). programmes for freshmen on the activities of cultism
The result indicated that students of high and on campus, how cult groups operate, how to know
average parental socio-economic status have a when you are being approached to join a cult. What
high attitude towards cultism than students of to do when you are being approached, and
low parental socio-economic status. strategies devised for initiations. This awareness
will definitely place freshmen on guard.
DISCUSSIONS Counsellors should organize seminars,
symposium and workshops for students on other
The result revealed that there is a significant social clubs on campus where they can become
influence of parental socio-economic status on members and participate actively in sporting,
students’ attitude towards cultism. This is in line sporting activities should be encourage among
with the findings of Douglas (1964), Aluede and the students if these are done the students
Maliki (1998) and Okon (2006) in which the socio- outside academic work will always be engaged
economic status of parents were opined to be a and not idle because the idle mind they say is the
major determinant of the attitude of students devils workshop and the cultists may not use
towards anti-social behaviours including cultism. this as an advantage.
Also Kallaghan (1972) revealed that there is a Counsellors should also partner with the
positive correlation between socio-economic school authorities, media, government and non-
status of parents and students and behaviour governmental organization in sensetizing the
manifestations. general public on the menace of cultism and also
In the same vein, Burges and Locke (1953), creating awareness of the activities of cultism.
Denga and Denga (1998) and Aluede and Maliki These can be done through jingles on radio and
(1998) posited that many parents neglected the television programmes in English and local
care of their children in the hands of some house languages, also by placing bill boards in strategic
helps, in a bid to meet up the economic demands places in our villages, towns and cities.
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