Parental Neglect and Child Abuse on Child Development in Port Harcourt Metropolis of Rivers State Elenwa

The study assessed parental neglect and child abuse in child development in Port Harcourt metropolis, Rivers State. Specifically the study was designed to examine parental responsibility towards their child, examine areas of child neglect and abuse, identify factors associated with parental neglect and child abuse and suggest social work intervention techniques in ameliorating parental neglect and child abuse in the study area. Purposive sampling technique was used to get information from 50 respondents. Collected data were analysed using percentage, mean score and regression analysis. Findings showed that the areas of parental responsibilities were: provision of food, clothing, healthcare and shelter, counseling in sex, career and friends, training to instill moral values. Areas of child neglects and abuse are street hawking, maltreatment, use of internet without guidance and lack of proper supervision. Factors associated with parental neglect and abuse are polygamy and joblessness on the part of parents. Social work intervention techniques are provision of rehabilitation centres for neglected and abused children. The study recommends that the media should promote programmes that deal on childcare and the dangers of child neglect. Keywords— Parental Neglect, Child Abuse, Port Harcourt Metropolis.


INTRODUCTION
Parental neglect is the inability of the parents of a child to provide the necessary materials and experience needed for the full potential development of the child.[1] defined child neglect as a condition in which a caretaker responsible for the child either deliberately or by extraordinary inattentiveness permits the child to experience avoidable present suffering and or fails to provide one or more of the ingredients generally deemed essential for developing a person's physical and intellectual capacities.This was buttressed by [3] who saw child neglect as the lack of adequate physical and medical care for the child, exposure to cruel and abusive treatment, improper supervision and controlled exploitation for monetary purposes, unlawfully keeping him from school and exposing him to criminal or immoral influence [8] The obvious outcome of child neglect is child abuse.Neglect is the most common form of child abuse.A child may be left hungry or dirty, without adequate clothing, shelter, supervision, medical or health care.By the pluralist, protectionist and romantic concept of the child, every child neglected is vulnerable to abuse.Abuse and neglect can hardly be separated since the child will be exposed to a high degree of negative socio-cultural factors in the environment.[1] associated child neglect with child abuse.According to him, children that are neglected are at high risk of not meeting the expected standard behavior and are more likely to participate in illegal or antisocial behavior.He was of the view that abuse could be physical, emotional or sexual.Physical abuse include all acts that cause physical injury to the child, sexual abuse involves all sexual acts that provide sexual gratification either emotionally or financially to the perpetrator, such as sexual acts with the child, using the child for prostitution, phonographic displays and other forms of sexual exploitations.Emotional abuse may be in form of verbal assault and other omissions or commissions that cause psychological imbalance to the child in the same way.The National Exchange Club Foundation of United State of America identified two types of child neglect, namely: Physical neglect and Educational neglect.Child neglect and abuse has become a global social problem.In Nigeria, though there is no reliable statistics, the phenomena may not be less alarming.A visit to Lagos and major cities in Nigeria will drive the evidence home to the notice of every good observer.Under Eko and other bridges in Lagos, it is a common sight to see many children abandoned by their parents and these children wander under the bridges as their new found homes.In many slums in and around Port Harcourt metropolis such as, Diobu and Town

II. METHODOLOGY
The area of study was Port Harcourt metropolis which is the capital city of Rivers State, Nigeria.Economically, Port Harcourt is the oil-rich zone of the hydrocarbon industry in Nigeria and the major producer of Petro-chemical and natural resources which are the major support of the Nigerian economy.Following the figures of the recent 2006 population census, Port Harcourt is made up of 541,115 persons with a male population of 276,464 persons and a female population of 264,651 persons.The whole population is circumscribed within a land area of 10,432 square kilometres, Road construction and other human activities are centred on the scarce land resources within Port Harcourt because the entire state is occupied by water and swamp the only true urban settlement.Multi stage sampling technique was employed.First, was the division of Port Harcourt metropolis into ten zones (strata).Secondly, purposive sampling of was used to select fifty children that are neglected and abused by their parents from the ten areas in Port Harcourt metropolis.Primary data were collected through the administration of structured questionnaires by hand to the respondents.Structured questionnaire was prepared to cover the objectives.The material was prepared in sections.Section A took care of the demography characteristics of the respondents while sections B, C and D were prepared to cover the stated objectives.Descriptive statistical parameters such as tables, percentages, ratios, charts and cross tabulations were applied to show perception scores and relationships among variables and chi-square measure was used to determine the degree of correlation between the key variables.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Parental Responsibilities to Children
In the aspect of parental responsibilities to children in Port Harcourt metropolis, the result in table 1  .This means that it is significant and since f-tab > fcal, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative accepted showing that there is a positive relationship between parental responsibility and child neglect/abuse.This means when parents do not perform their parental obligations to their wards/children there wards /children will be neglected.

Factors associated with parental neglect and child abuse
From the result in table 4, it was shown that joblessness on the part of parents can affect the degree of care they give to their child with a grand mean of (2.93), polygamous families neglect their children more than families with one man, one wife (2.82), the number of children in a family can determine the degree of care or neglect their parent can give them (2.82), failure of going out to provide the necessary welfare conditions for child upbringing is increasing the cost of parenting and contributing to child neglect and abuse (2.65), parents who do not get adequate parental discipline end up neglecting their own children (2.60), family where parents are not highly educated, there is greater chance of their children being neglected or abused due to ignorance of what constitute neglect or abuse (2.56), income level of a family can affect the extent of care and support they give to their children (2.56) and most of the cases of child neglect we see today are caused by unplanned families/pregnancies (2.52).Joblessness as shown by the study on the part of parents can affect the care and attention given to the children and that will negatively affect the children who may join wrong peer and graduate to adult criminals that pose serious security threat to other law abiding citizens in the society.According to [4] when parents are jobless and could not meet the basic needs of their children, there is the tendency to neglect them.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS in view of the frailty and vulnerability of children, they depend on adults for their care, support, welfare and survival.However, in many families children are not provided with the necessities for their maximum potential development.
Parental neglect has been prevalent in Port Harcourt Metropolis and the State at large.Parental unemployment are associated condition which warrant parental neglect.More importantly, inadequate welfare infrastructures for parental support on the part of the state were also among the factors identified.Following the findings in this study, the study recommended or suggested that child upbringing is a responsibility of mother, father, guardians, law enforcement agencies and government.The failure of the actors involved to meet their obligations to the child seems to have a negative impact on the child and society.Therefore, all the actors should get seriously involved in order to achieve maximum result.Secondly, one of the factors responsible for child neglect has been attributed to broken homes and high cases of Divorce.If laws on divorce are made to dissuade rather than encourage divorce, the case of broken homes will be minimized.Finally, the media should produce programmes that deal on childcare and the dangers of child neglect, jingles and songs in various local dialects can be used to educate parents on the effects of this social stigma.

Limitations
Due to time, material and human resources available to the researchers, this study was limited to ten (10) wards in the metropolis and to the specific objectives of this study, although the researcher was faced with challenges of getting the children to interview during the study.It is suggested that further studies be carried out to involve the parents of neglected and abused children in order to know the reasons behind their actions.

5.
Type children in a family can determine the degree of care or neglect their parents can on the part of parents can affect the degree of care they give to their children.by single parents tend to have a higher incidence of neglect and abuse.families neglect their children more than families with one man, one wife. of their parents dead or divorced tend to the have higher percentage of child neglect and abuse than normal families.where parents are not highly educated, there is greater chance of their children being neglected or abused due to ignorance of what constitutes neglect or abuse.cases of child neglect we see today are caused by unplanned families/pregnancies. not get adequate parental discipline end up not neglecting their own children.provide the necessary welfare conditions for child upbringing is increasing the cost of parenting and contributing to child neglect and abuse.street hawking can fall victim of abuse by unscrupulous men and women.use of internet can expose children to pornography and sexual abuse.

International journal of Horticulture, Agriculture and Food science(IJHAF) [Vol-2, Issue-3, May-Jun, 2018] https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijhaf.2.3.7 ISSN: 2456-8635 axis
[9]the old Port Harcourt, many children have become street children wandering from street to street without any form of education or parental care.In fact,[9]succinctly described these categories of children and their conditions: as children forced to make out a living in the informal sector: on the street as beggars or as domestic servants.Some work in the informal sector under unsafe, unhealthy and inhuman conditions as labourer.Child workers abound in markets and garages, among others as porters and messengers.There are many children with disabilities hidden from the public view.There are children traded like slaves into foreign lands.Some children are disadvantaged simply because they belong to stigmatized groups, example the Osus in Abia and Imo State.Many fathers and mothers no longer play their traditional mothering and fathering roles in the family.Therefore the study aimed to analyze and identify causes on of child abuse and how it has affected the development of the child that resulted to child neglect and abuse in Port Harcourt.Specifically, the study sought to: i. examine parental responsibility towards their children in the study area; ii.examine areas of child neglect and abuse; iii.identify the factors associated with parental neglect and child abuse in Port Harcourt Metropolis; and iv.Suggest social work intervention techniques in ameliorating parenting neglect and child abuse.

International journal of Horticulture, Agriculture and Food science(IJHAF) [Vol-2, Issue-3, May-Jun, 2018] https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijhaf.2.3.7 ISSN: 2456-8635 (
revealed that provision of basic needs like food, shelter and clothes was (100%) followed by education (94.0%), watching children do school homework, read, television programme viewed 92.0%), counseling in sex, career and friend (92.0%), training children to learn how to cook, wash, dress and cleanliness (90.0%).Meeting children health needs (90.0%), training to instill moral values (84.0%) and being role models to their children (80.0%).Masglow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire motivation and so the basic needs of the children must be met by parent because they are obligated to do so and to avoid raising delinquent children and adult criminals.
From the result in table 2, f.-tab (18.13542) while the f-cal (4.300949) showing that f-tab is greater than f-cal.F-tab (18.14) > f-cal (4.31).The pvalue is.0.000321 which is less than the probability value of 0.05 (P<0.05)indicating the probability value (0.05) is greater than the p-value (0.000321)

Table . 2
: ANOVA of Relationship between parents responsibility and Child neglect/abuse

Table . 4
: Mean distribution of factors associated with parental neglect and child abuse