Psycho-Social Value Perception of Senior Secondary School Students of Gombe State as Correlation of their Social Adjustment: Implications for Rebranding the Nigerian Society.

Abstract

The focus of the study was to determine whether psycho~social value perception of senior secondary school students correlates with their social adjustments. Psycho-social value perception is the judgment of students regarding their social relationships based on the mental understanding they derived from’ their home experience. Social adjustment is concerned with how students may be influenced in a social relationship bearing in mind the personal judgment which they already have from their home experience. The study arose from the concern that a changed society can profoundly be achieved through a youth-generation that is value~conscious. The sample of the study was 200 respondents drawn from public senior secondary schools in Gombe Metropolis of Gombe State. The Psycho-social Value Perception and Social Adjustment Scale (PVPSAS) was used as instrument for data collection. Conscientious effort was made to validate the instrument by associating its items with the factors that were examined. Based on this, the instrument was re-structured for clarity and relevance. To"arrive at valid and objective conclusions, one research question was raised and three hypotheses were formulated. While the research question was answered using percentage, the hypotheses were tested using the statistical tools of correlational analysis, t-test-of significance and one-way ANOVA. Highlight of the findings showed that the students had higher psycho-social value perception as they advanced in age. It also showed that psycho-social adjustment problems were prevalent among secondary school students from houses with large family sizes. The conclusion is that with a larger percentage of Nigerians maintaining large family sizes, it is likely that most younger members of society may be experiencing psycho-social adjustment problems. The need therefore to map out strategies to stem the.tide of social problem becomes imperative