Incidence and Forms of Child Abuse Among Foster and Step Children and their Educational Implications

Abstract

The study was an analysis of the reported cases of child abuse in primary schools and social welfare office in Jos to ascertain its occurrence among fosters and step children. The data used for the analysis were the reported cases of child abuse that were recorded and investigated by the school authorities. The records consisted of 137 reported cases obtained from seven randomly selected public primary schools and the social welfare office of Jos North Local Government Council. Four research questions were formulated to guide the analysis. The analysis was done using percentage. The result of the analysis showed that there was higher incidence of child abuse perpetrated on foster/step children than biological children and that the incidence was higher among girls than boys. The most frequent forms of abuse in order of occurrence were child labour, child neglect and physical abuse. The implications of these findings for the educational development of the children were identified.