CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background To The Study

Adolescents come from the Latin word “adolescere” which means to grow to maturity. It is against this backdrop that Santrock (2000) defined adolescence as a developmental period of transition between childhood and adulthood. It involves biological, cognitive, physical, and socio-emotional changes.

Adolescence is one of the stages of development between middle and late childhood and adulthood. It is often difficult to attribute an exact age range to adolescence which begins at approximately 10 to 13 years of age ends between the ages of 18 to 20 for most individuals.

Late adolescence refers to approximately the latter half of the second decade of life. Late adolescence is characterized by career interests, dating, and identity exploration. During adolescence, the adolescent goes through a period called puberty which is a prominent characteristic of adolescence.

The first book on adolescence was written in 1904 by G. Stanley Hall (1844-1928) that was termed by Historians as the father of the scientific study of adolescents. Hall believed that development is controlled by genetically determined physiological factors and that environment plays a minimal role in development especially during infancy and childhood. Thus with regard to adolescence, Hall believed that heredity interacts with environmental influences to determine the individual’s development.

According to Hall, adolescence is a period from 12-23 years of age and is filled with storms and stress. The storm and stress view is Hall’s concept that adolescence is a turbulent time charged with conflicts and mood swings. In Hall’s view, adolescents’ feelings and actions oscillate between concert and humidity, good and temptation, happiness and sadness.

Hall also looked at development as a biological process that directs social development. Therefore, in Hall’s view, biological changes in adolescents allow for more complicated social arrangements such as dating. With regard to education, hall said that such faculties as civility, scientific thinking, and morality should be intensively taught after the age of 16.

On the other hand, Anthropologist Mead (1928) argued that the basic nature of adolescence is not biological as Hall envisioned but rather socio-cultural. She argued that when cultures provide a smooth, gradual transition from childhood to adulthood, little storm and stress is associated with the period. Mead concluded that cultures that allow adolescents to observe sexual relations, regard death as natural, do important work.

In contemporary times, adolescents have been stereotyped as abnormal and deviant rather than normal and nondeviant. This is the case with Hall’s description of adolescence as a period of storm and stress, such as stereotyping is so widespread that adolescent researcher Adolescence Adelson (1979) called it adolescent generalization gap.

However, adolescence should not be viewed as a time of rebellion, crisis, pathology, and deviance. Rather, it should be viewed as a time of education, decision making, commitment, and a time of carving out a place in the world. Most of the problems of today’s growth are not with the youths themselves rather, what adolescents need is access to a range of legitimate opportunities and long term support from adults who deeply care about them (Santrock, 2000).

During adolescence, the students experience or encounter some crises or problems which lead to abnormal behaviour in most adolescents. These crises include drug/alcohol abuse, juvenile delinquency. Hence, this study is out to probe the effects of adolescents’ students and academic performance in Many Division.

Statement of the problem

Adolescents’ academic performance is disrupted by a number of crises occurring during the developmental epoch of their lives. These crises include drug/alcohol abuse, juvenile delinquency, and peer influence. The above crises are caused by biological, physical, and social factors and if left unchecked and not corrected at the approximate time, may result in more serious problems ranging from mental to social disorders. There is therefore the need to investigate the effects of adolescents’ crises academic performance in Manyu.

The general objective of the study

The purpose of this study was to find out how adolescents’ and students’ crises affecting their academic performance in Manyu Division.

Specific objectives

This study is also aimed at finding out if:

1. Drug /alcohol affects students’ academic performance in Manyu.
2. Juvenile delinquency affects students’ academic performance in Manyu.
3. Peer influence affects students’ academic performance in Manyu.