Impact of street hawking on social adjustment of secondary school students in Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos State

Abstract

The study investigated the “Impact of Street Hawking on Social Adjustment of Secondary School Students in Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos State. Four research questions and four corresponding hypotheses guided the study. The descriptive research design was adopted in the study. The simple random sampling technique was used to select two hundred respondents from five secondary schools in the study location. A self-designed thirty-item Likert type questionnaire was used to gather the data used for the study. The formulated hypotheses were tested using independent t-test and two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistical tools. Findings from the study showed that there is a significant impact of street hawking on social adjustment of secondary school students. Also, there is significant impact of street hawking and parents’ socio-economic status on social adjustment. There is significant impact of gender on street hawking and social adjustment among secondary school students. There is no significant impact of age on street hawking and social adjustment among secondary school students. On the basis of the research findings, recommendations were made which include among the others the need for school administrators to organize or find an avenue to educate parents on the negative effects of subjecting their children to street hawking, State governments should ensure that appropriate sanctions be meted out to parents whose children are found hawking on the streets either during or after school hours. Sociologists of education also need to be involved in educating the public on the detriments of juveniles hawking on the streets and how it contributes in the increased rate of drop-outs.

Keywords: Street hawking, Social Adjustment, Socio-Economic Status, Gender, Age