Philippine E-Journals

Street Hawking as Correlates of Adolescents’ Social Adjustment and Academic Performance

Chinyere Augusta Nwajiuba | Adesoji A. Oni

 

Abstract:

This study examined the street trading activities among adolescents and its effects
on the social adjustment and academic performance of secondary school students
in Mushin Local Government area of Lagos State. In carrying out the study, the
descriptive research design was used; four research questions and four null hypotheses were postulated to give direction. Researcher’s self-designed questionnaire (SHASAQ) was used to assess the respondents’ opinion while 350 well-completed set of the questionnaire were collected from the respondents. Data collected were analyzed using simple mean, percentage, standard deviation, T-test, Pearson Moment Correlation and Chi-square statistical tools and the hypotheses were tested on 0.05 level of significance. After analyzing the data gathered, it was revealed that there are more female adolescent hawkers than male adolescent hawkers in Mushin Local Government area of Lagos State. Adolescents have the bad disposition towards street hawking in Mushin Local Government area of Lagos State; there is a significant relationship between adolescent social behavior and academic behavior, and gender is a significant factor in social adjustment of street hawkers. It was suggested that the government and the school administrators provide adequate educational scheme arrangement for students from the poor socio-economic background who do not often have time to review school activities at home. As a result of street hawking and that government should ensure that the number of adolescents who partake in street hawking is reduced by making laws to ban street hawking so that the rate of drop out can be reduced. It is however recommended that the study is replicated by other researchers using different location and environment and also to confirm or refute its validity and to expand the scope of work previously done.