Influence Of Selected Predictors Of Juvenile Delinquency Among Public Secondary School Students In Kisii Central Sub-County, Getembe Zone Kenya

Abstract

This study is about Juvenile delinquency (JD) in relation to committing anti-social activities like: theft, illicit sexual relations, use and trafficking of drugs, fighting, destruction of property and cheating by high school students ages 14-18 years. The purpose of the study was to explain the extent to which suicidal ideation, help-seeking behaviour, and use of media influence JD among secondary school students in Kisii Central Sub-County, Getembe Zone. It was also about the extent of differences in JD according to family type and perceived social class. Specific objectives were to: determine the relationship between suicidal thoughts and JD, assess the relationship between help-seeking behaviour and JD, investigate the role played by the media in influencing JD, examine the differences in JD according to respondents‘ family type and to evaluate the differences in JD according to respondents‘ perceived social class. Descriptive survey research design, mixed methods, was used. The target population of the study was 6,357 students from selected public secondary schools in Kisii Central Sub-County, Getembe Zone. Kisii Central was selected because no similar study has been done there and because acts of student violence are apparent there. The sample size was 610 students, 9 school administrators, (principals, deputy principals and teacher counsellors, one from each school) and 9 parents. Only form two and three students were included in the sample. The social learning theory and the theory of planned behaviour guided the study. Probability and non-probability sampling methods were used thus: convenience sampling was used to select the schools and the parents, simple random sampling was used to select the student respondents from schools A and B, and purposive sampling was used to select student respondents from school C and all school administrators. Questionnaires were used to collect data from students and teachers, interview schedules for principals, and focus group discussion questions were used on parents. A sixteen item self-report questionnaire, modified from the one by Elliot & Ageton (1980), was used to measure Juvenile delinquency and the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire(GHSQ) by Wilson, Deane, Ciarrochi & Richwood (2005) was used to measure help-seeking behaviour. Cronbach alpha, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, means and STD deviations, ANOVA and Post-hoc analyses methods were used to analyse data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. The results indicated that: adolescents who share suicidal thoughts with significant others are unlikely to be delinquent, respondents who scored highly in help-seeking behaviour were more delinquent than those that had a low score, and media exposure influences JD. It was also found out that respondents from step-families were more delinquent than those from other family types and that those from the upper social class were more delinquent than those from the lower classes. The study recommended that: youth engaging in suicidal ideation be encouraged to share their thoughts, a study to find out why help-seekers are more delinquent than non-help-seekers be done, adolescents be encouraged to use the media appropriately in order to reduce cases of delinquency. It was also recommended that upper class parents be sensitized on the possible evils of the digital gadgets they avail to their children in order to minimize delinquency.