Can Family Interventions be a Strategy for Curtailing Delinquency and Neglect in Nigeria? Evidence from Adolescents in Custodial Care

Abstract

Adverse social circumstances occasioned by the poor state of human and socio-economic development in Nigeria have created a situation for high rates of delinquency and neglect among adolescents. Medium term solutions to the perilous state of Nigeria's youth are urgently needed. With a view to assess if family interventions could be a medium term target for preventing these adverse child outcomes in Nigeria, this study examined the differences in the family background between adolescents in custodial care and a comparison group through a retrospective inquiry. Results from 204 adolescents drawn from two custodial institutions in Nigeria and 204 matched school-going comparison group showed that the adolescents in institutional custody were about 5 times more likely to report parental separation. They were also more likely to have lived with a significantly higher mean number of different caregivers in their lifetime (4.4±2.6 vs. 1.6± 0.6; t = 1.77, p = 0.001). The institutionalised adolescents were also twice more likely to have witnessed domestic violence and were 6 times more likely to have been beaten to the point of serious bodily harm in their lifetime. Study posits that problematic family background played a role in the factors that led to coming in contact with the juvenile justice system among the institutionalized adolescents. It calls on social-welfare policy makers in Nigeria to target family interventions as among the medium term remedies for child neglect and delinquency.