The Influence of Child Abuse on the Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils in Primary Science in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find out the influence of child abuse on pupils academic performance in primary science. To carry out this study effectively two variables were identified for the study. These were used to formulate the research hypotheses. The design for the study was ex-post-facto. The area of study was Cross River State, Nigeria. The population of study consisted of all primary six pupils in Cross River State in the 2005/2006 school year. This was made up of 68,201 pupils from 994 primary schools in the State. The sampling procedure was stratified random sampling and the sample was 2,940 pupils selected from 49 schools. Two instruments were used: A Child Abuse Questionnaire (CHAQ) and a primary science test to test pupils’ academic performance. The independent t-test was used to analyze the data. The result revealed that children that were not abused perform better than their counterpart who where abused. Based on these findings some recommendations were made.