Abstract

Moral decadence in Cameroon has generated a lot of problems in all sectors of our society resulting in the slow pace of development in the country. The study examines the effect of moral decadence on the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality. Specifically, the study seeks to; investigate the effects of drug addiction on the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools, examine how alcohol use influences the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools, examine how sexual promiscuity influences the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools and to examine how social media usage influences the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools. The study employed a descriptive survey design to sampled 60 adolescence students by using a stratified random sampling and convenient sampling techniques from three secondary schools using a structured-questionnaire. The results show that social media usage by adolescence lead to moral miscount as most spend time communicating with their friends all day long and viewing of illicit sexual nudes and videos that causes them to practice with their friends’ illicit sexual acts. Alcohol consumption by the adolescence was also due to peer pressure and the influence of parents at home and uncontrolled social gathers at schools, which also lead to moral decadence. Drug abuse was also another moral decadence common among some adolescence, which was influence from peer pressure, curiosity and presence of some family members at home who take drugs. Sexual promiscuity was another moral misconduct common with the youths. This moral decadence was a result of peer pressure, back by wrong used of social media, and also by actions of some teachers at schools that harassed young girls into sexual acts. The study concluded that social media usage, alcohol abuse, drug addiction and sexual promiscuity by adolescence lead to moral miscount among adolescence. It was recommended that, the government should improve the economy, censor magazines, video films that are immoral and ensure enough public awareness of the evils of sexual immorality.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Moral decadence in Cameroon has generated a lot of problems in all sectors of our society resulting in the slow pace of development in the country. The moral decadence ranges from examination malpractices, stealing bribery and corruption, sexual promiscuity, social mal-adjustment, insubordination, disrespect to the constituted authority and the rules of law. All these immoral behaviours possibly contributed to declining economic and educational standard, resulting in the importation of strange social behaviours into our society. This, in turn, has gone deep into the lifestyle of men and women in the society thereby generating fear, unpatriotic, feelings, disunity, lack of faith in the development and progress of the country, distrust towards leaders and unguided behaviour in the mind of the ones with a conscience who would have loved to uphold high moral standards. Those who gain from these immoral attitudes prefer them to continue. For that reason, there is a need for appropriate orientation to be given to the young ones. This will eradicate the moral decadence in our society, thereby creating room for development. This can only be completed by our educational sectors using the school which at the grassroots, matters most in the instance of development.

Background of the Study

Historically, it is amazing to find out that the youths of these days are morally bankrupt. Our society has witnessed a tremendous deterioration in its moral, social and educational values, especially among the youths, (Chima, 2010). However, the issue of moral decadence in our society has become a very controversial issue because society seemed not to know the disparity between what is morally right or wrong.

Also, the concept of decadence dates from the eighteenth century, especially from Montesquieu, and was taken up by critics as a term of abuse after Désiré Nisard used it against Victor Hugo and Romanticism in general. A later generation of Romantics, such as Théophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire took the word as a badge of pride, as a sign of their rejection of what they saw as banal “progress.” In the 1880s, a group of French writers referred to themselves as Decadents. The classic novel from this group is Joris-Karl Huysmans’ Against Nature, often seen as the first great decadent work, though others attribute this honour to Baudelaire’s works.

Berkowitz, Marvin and Oser (1995) opined that in the past our society had a high sense of respect, determination and diligence to work. Today the sense of awe, respect, determination and diligence to work is gradually fading away. This they say is obvious in the way people are doing things carelessly. We are aware of how much our society is bereaved of morality this day. There is no doubt that things are falling apart many people behaves as if there is no need for decency and diligence for things that matter. The is an increase in moral, social and cultural decadence.

In this 21st century as many schools attempted to ignore the moral dimensions of Schooling; there is a decline in performance, examination malpractice, rape, defilement and all these have been attributed to the moral decline in Schools by the stakeholders. At the same time, educators were encouraged to address the moral concerns of students using two approaches: values clarification and cognitive developmental moral education. The first, values clarification, rests on little theory other than the assumption that students need practice choosing among moral alternatives and that teacher should be facilitators of the clarification process rather than indoctrinators of particular moral ideas or value choices.

Contextually, the issue of school moral decadence is not a new phenomenon. Despite the efforts made by the Ministry of Education to handle indiscipline in public secondary schools as proof by setting up guidance and counselling departments in all secondary schools in Cameroon, indiscipline’s of a varied nature have persisted in these schools with a new dimension. In Cameroon, the adolescent has shown in the past decades increase in moral decadence as they are exposed to social media, TV and bad peer pressure along with poor parenting upbringing. Youths are often seen to engaged in excessive alcohol abuse, drugs, bullying and this has been shown to have a significant impact on their socio-emotional wellbeing of these adolescents. Moral decadence in pubic secondary schools in Cameroon had become a matter of concern in recent years to all stakeholders. Sources from the district education office (2018) indicate that for the last three years over a dozen schools have had major indiscipline cases and caused harm to the students, teachers, and parents. Resources of unknown value destroyed and academic performance was adversely affected.

Statement of the Problem

The society we live in is morally blind, deteriorated and dead. The issue of moral decadence has become very controversial as society has lost a sense of morals. Hence the basic concern of this study is to understand the dimension of moral decadence among secondary school students in Buea Municipality is to determine the following; The issue of moral decadence as it affects the secondary school students, which includes the exhibition of such attributes that associates with moral decadence such as prostitution, cultism, alcohol use, drug abuse, disobedience, robbery, cheating in the examination and other social vices. The problem of this study is how to create effective awareness of the dimensions of moral decadence among secondary school students in society. Also how moral decadence can be controlled by the schools, societies and the nation.

However, the level of porosity and erosion of morality in Cameroon and our immediate society is quite disheartening and unfortunate. Worse still, the youths are the most hit of this evil. Thus, how can those dimensions of moral decadence among secondary school students in Buea Municipality and how it affects the socio-emotional wellbeing of these adolescents? This horrible situation has reached a stage of utter state of insecurity among adolescents in schools. During this escalating rate of armed robbery activities, drug abused, disobedience, arose the new swindle and gangsterism in secondary schools. The array of the social confusion and disorder created by all these anti-social activities are enormous and looking for an immediate violent expressive outlet in Buea Municipality.  It is the above situation that prompted this research work.

Objectives of the Study

General Objective

The general objective of the study is to examine the effect of moral decadence on the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality.

Specific Objectives

Specifically, the study seeks to;

1. Investigate the effects of drug addiction on the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality.
2. Examine how alcohol use influences the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality.
3. Examine how sexual promiscuity influences the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality.
4. Examine how social media usage influences the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality.

Research Questions

General Research Question

The general research question of the study is what is the effect of moral decadence on the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality?

Specific Research Questions

1. What is the effects of drug addiction on the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality?
2. How does alcohol use influence the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality?
3. How does sexual promiscuity influence the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality?
4. How does social media usage influence the socio-emotional wellbeing of adolescents in secondary schools in Buea Municipality?