CAUSES OF CHILD ABANDONMENT AS EXPRESSED BY PROFESSIONAL HELP PROVIDERS IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

HAMMED, A Olawale; ISIAKA, Gafar & SALAMI, Arinola Rasheedat

Abstract

Child abandonment is a form of child abuse which has negative health, cognitive, social and emotional development effects. This study investigated causes of child abandonment as expressed by professional help providers in Kwara State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study and a total sample of 420 professional help providers were drawn from the three senatorial districts of Kwara State using purposive, proportional and random sampling techniques. A research question was raised and answered and four hypotheses were tested. The instrument used in gathering data for the study was a questionnaire titled “Causes of Child Abandonment Questionnaire (CCAQ)’’. The instrument was validated by experts and reliability coefficient score of 0.74 was obtained.  Percentage was used to present the demographic data while the null hypotheses were analyzed using t-test and ANOVA at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that child abandonment is caused by breakdown in family relationships, death of one or both parents and childbirth out of wedlock. Also, there were significant differences in the causes of child abandonment as expressed by help providers in Kwara State based on length of years in service, professional status and place of work while there was no significant difference in the causes of child abandonment as expressed by help providers in Kwara State based on gender.            In line with the findings of the study, it was recommended that Counsellors should organise programmes that may discourage child rearing practices outside wedlock and society should also take into consideration the rights of children.