CHAPTER 2
Review of literature
This chapter renders it focus on the three aspects of the literature review: the conceptual framework of the research, which is centered on the major concepts that concern this study, the theoretical framework in which is contained the theories that serve as the backbone for the study, and the empirical framework that is based on researches that have previously been carried out on the subject matter.
2.1 Conceptual framework
The concept of child abuse
There is no general definition for this concept. But to study, understand and effectively manage it, different professionals, organizations, agencies and researchers have defined the concept based on different contexts, professions, cultures and personal values. A consistent definition is needed to monitor, compare and measure the magnitude and trends of child abuse across jurisdictions.
Child abuse could be referred to as the action or inaction of parents or caretakers towards their child/ward that causes harm and impairs the development of the child. The World Health Organization defines it as “Child abuse or maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power”. Child abuse and child maltreatment are used interchangeably but some organizations have referred to child maltreatment as an umbrella term for all forms of abuse committed either knowingly or unknowingly. Basically any act committed against a child either by parents or caretakers which cause harm especially developmentally is referred to as child abuse. It could be abuse by commission or by omission; where the caretaker is aware of the health implications of an act and repeatedly does it and when the caretaker is unaware of the implications of his actions. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), uses the term child maltreatment to refer to “words or overt actions that cause harm, potential harm or threat of harm to a child and the failure to provide for a child’s basic physical, emotional and educational needs or to protect a child from harm or potential harm”.
Though child abuse is very prevalent, it has received inadequate attention especially by the government but non-governmental organizations like UNICEF help in this respect. According to a report by United Nations Children’s Fund, majority of Nigerian children suffer abuse before their fifth birthday. The Nigerian Child Rights Act was established in 2003 at the federal level and so far only 16 states have passed the act. This act prohibits the use of capital punishment, corporal punishment and imprisonment on children. According to Section 21 of the Act, a child is anyone under the age of 18 years and Section 22 and 23, frowns on early marriages and betrothal of the girl child. It also provides that a child rights implementation committee be created to ensure obedience and strict adherence to the provisions of the law. Though this has not been in use, to some extent this has created a check on the abuse of children in Nigeria and also assisted the rise of Non-governmental organizations to battle abuse (Chindah,2016).
Scholars have concluded that the practice of child abuse is as old as human existence. Human history has records in literature, arts and science of adult’s brutality and wickedness towards children (Isangedighi, 2004). Researchers reported in the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies that corporal punishment is widely endorsed as a suitable penalty for a variety of juvenile behavior like petty theft, lying, rudeness to elders, smoking, etc.(Ebigbo, P.O.)
Forms of child abuse
It is almost impossible to find a child subject to one type of abuse as physical abuse would cause emotional abuse and emotional abuse could cause sexual abuse, they are all interrelated. All forms of abuse should be minimized, managed as effectively as possible because lack of proper emotional and psychological development could cause the person to abuse other children either as a child or an adult.
a. Neglect
This is the commonest form of abuse and is an act of omission which is just as harmful as hitting them. It is defined as the failure to provide for the shelter, safety, supervision, and nutritional needs of the child (MedicineNet,2004).
Types
Physical – This is neglecting a child’s basic daily physiological needs like food, water, clothes, fresh air, adequate healthcare, security, shelter
Emotional neglect – this is neglecting the child’s emotional needs love, a strong emotional bond(either by blood or association), attention, encouragement, emotional security. It takes time to prove this kind of neglect because it cannot be perfectly sighted. Knowledge of information beyond child, crying at slightest opportunity, no supervision, unnecessary attachment to teacher, aggression, loneliness, withdrawal, theft/stealing, are all signs of emotional neglect.
Educational/Developmental neglect – Failure to provide education for the child, limited social interaction with peers or mates, prevention from participating in extracurricular activities or provision of necessities for growth and development all signify educational/developmental neglect. It is also known as developmental neglect because the child should develop in all aspect – socially, mentally, educationally, financially, physically.
Medical – failure to provide medical attention for the child. Or lack of promptness in the provision of this need, like provision of glasses, drugs, antibiotics, treatment of cuts/burns/bruises.
Most parents don’t knowingly abuse their children but as a result of abuse or neglect they experienced, they unknowingly abuse their children. Neglect could lead to depression, truancy, substance abuse, anger, vulnerability to other forms of abuse like sexual abuse and exploitation, suicide and death of the child. It could be caused by the busyness of the parents as a result of the work of the parents or excessive permissiveness.
The following are could characterize incidents of child neglect:
• Wearing light clothes in extremely cold weather
• Drastic change in handwriting
• Wearing torn clothes
• Lack of educational materials
• Absence of parents to Parent/Teachers Meetings
• Delayed response of parents to schools’ requests
• Freedom to do anything and go anywhere
b. Physical abuse
This refers to the intentional action of inflicting injury to a person by kicking, beating, or any other action that results in physical impairment of the child. It also includes circumstances that threaten the health/welfare like child labor(hawking), trafficking, etc. Though in some societies, corporal punishment is not a punishable offense as the infliction of pain on the child is for correction measures. The Nigerian society fashions child discipline religiously with reference to biblical injunction of spare the rod and spoil the child. And this cultural belief has led many parents to delegate the correction/punishment of their children to family members. Johnson(2004) reports that over 90% of abusive parents have neither psychotic or criminal personalities but are lonely, unhappy, angry, frustrated or have unrealistic expectations of their children. Most parents lack competence in childrearing practices, some have unplanned pregnancies, some have to cope with stress from work and the inability to balance the stress with the family could lead to physical abuse(using every slight opportunity to cause harm or inflict pain on the child), most times they are unaware but their psychological conditions play a huge role in abuse. Due to experience, most parents are unaware of other means of training their children but by corporal punishment. An example is seen in the fictional novel by Chimamanda Adichie where the father poured boiling water on his children’s feet to punish them for staying with a heathen grandfather. He did that and so many others because the reverend father who trained him poured hot water on his hands for stealing. In the Nigeria, child abuse is no longer limited to the home but has found its way into the school system creating a barrier in attaining sound educational development (Umobong,2010).
Physical abuse can be characterized by:
• Using pepper on to force the child to tell the truth
• Beating, punching, slapping, knocking on the head, kicking, hitting
• Hot objects, scalding water
• Severe inappropriate physical punishment
c. Emotional abuse
This refers to any act that can affect the social, psychological, cognitive, mental or behavioral aspects of a child(Isangedighi, 2004). A child can be abused without violence or sex. But a child cannot be abused sexually or physically or neglected without being abused emotionally. Every childrearing practice adopted by emotionally abusive parents is geared towards satisfying and meeting the needs and goals of the parents rather than the child. A parent could neglect their child because it is convenient, punish them because it is easier than sitting down to address a behavior, sell them or give them out to be house helps as a means of income for the family, neglect the need for clothing, education, proper nutrition (or fairly adequate) because it is expensive or even give no form of attention to them because they are hurting themselves. Regardless of all these, emotionally abusive parents may be unaware of their acts and its effects.
This is not limited to the home front as people in position of power can abuse the child emotionally. Teachers, relatives, neighbors, elder siblings, older classmates can abuse a child emotionally. Meanwhile it is the most difficult form of abuse to be detected because growth causes changes in the emotions and lack of physical discover makes it more subtle in discovery (Ifediora,2016).
Emotional abuse is characterized by:
• Verbal abuse(“worthless child”, “a mistake”, “no good”)
• Limited physical contact(no hugs, no kisses)
• Humiliation in presence of peers
• Negative comparisons to others
• Placing unrealistic demands on the child
• Putting pepper on the child’s body
• Tying child to a chair
• Depriving child of meals as a form of punishment
d. Sexual abuse
This is present when an adult decides to engage a person below the age of 18 years in any form of sexual behavior, or when the child is exposed to sexual materials or information inappropriate for them. A child can also cause force another child to engage in sexually inappropriate behaviors either through blackmail or bullying. Sexual abuse can be through contact or non-contact forms.
It can be characterized by:
Non-contact sexual abuse
• Exposing child to pornographic materials
• Taking photographs of the child for sexual purposes
• Exposing genitals to child for sexual gratification
• Talking or commenting on the child in sexual ways
Contact sexual abuse
• Touching the child’s genitals
• Any type of penetration of a child
• Making the child to engage in sexual activities
• Telling child to touch the adult’s or another’s genitals
Child abuse is attributed mostly to relatives and studies have shown that children rarely suffer sexual abuse from strangers (Medinus and Johnson, 1976). When a child is sexually abused by a stranger, it is called sexual assault (Ugbong et al, 2004). It is important to note that sexual abuse can cause physical dangers as well as emotional; where the child is plagued with guilt, shame and humiliation, blaming self for being abused, sometimes has to cope with death threats from abuser, self loathing and sexual problems when older. Studies have shown that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before their 18th year birthday. Reports on the sexual abuse of children are limited because only few cases actually get to the hospital, police station or require counseling(Eweniyi, 2000; Gesinde, ). Disabled children are more prone to sexual abuse than their un-disabled counterparts (Briggs,2006). Some school of thoughts think that men more than women are more likely to abuse children while some think women are more likely because they spend more time with the child(Flemming, 1997; Bukoye, 2004; George, 2004).
The concept of career
This is the sequence and variety of occupations undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life with opportunities for progress. Super(1957), defined it as a sequence of positions held during the course of a lifetime, some of them simultaneously. Career is a sum total of who a person is – their self concept/perception, skills, knowledge, personality, age, personality, age, gender, ability, disability, health, beliefs and hobbies, friends, family, world of work. It is the sum total of all paid and unpaid work undertaken by a person in a lifetime. It was traditionally known as paid employment and referred to as a single occupation but it is now known as a continuous process of learning and development. Sullivan & Baruch (2009) defines career as an individual’s work-related and other relevant experiences, both inside and outside of organizations that form a unique pattern over the individual’s life span.
The term career is usually misused interchangeably with other terms like profession, vocation, work and job.
The concept of dual career
This term was first coined by Rapoport and Rapoport, 1967 in an article, “women in top jobs”. And dual career was defined as ‘a couple where both partners pursue careers and are married’. According to them, in dual career families, both careers require a high level of commitment, have a developmental character, and are essentially demanding in nature, while traditional families lack one or more of these features. In 1971, dual-worker couple was added to the term to differentiate from people who are not highly committed to their work with developmental sequence. Hiller and Dyehouse(1987), proposed the use of dual earner couples as a more generic term/phrase. It is easier to research dual earner couples than dual career couples. The growth of dual income families can be attributed to a higher employment rate and opportunities of married women. The rate at job opportunities is made available to women has increased generally and the opportunities available can be maneuvered to suit her abilities. Jobs like nursing, teaching, are mostly women-inclined and they still take on energy-consuming jobs like brick-layering, woodcutting, etc.
According to Duxbury, Lyons, Higgins(2007), there are 4 types of dual-income families:
a. Dual-career family
Both partners hold career positions, have high academic qualifications and in most cases enjoy a stable socioeconomic status. Aside from the financial rewards attached to this family type, the satisfaction and psychological rewards drives both partners in the pursuit of their desires. It is assumed that partners would adopt a more egalitarian view of their relationship. Duxbury et al also suggested that the work-family conflict or family-work conflict would be high in this relationship but continuous negotiation between partners on issues of concern would create a resolve. Couples with low priorities for childbearing could either postpone or avoid parenthood while those with high regard for children would shift from dual career to the new traditional family form; where the man’s career is more important than the woman’s. In the African society, regardless of how the family intends to equalize the duties and rights, the women would be greatly dissatisfied than their spouses for the time available for domestic duties. This dissatisfaction will increase with the number of children hence career-oriented women generally delay childbirth or rear children early enough so as to pursue their careers and the issue of misconceived pregnancies could breathe frustration or a decline in their career.
b. Dual-earner family
Very few studies have been done on this family type in contrast with dual career and there is a lack of specificity with respect to sampling. Dual earner couples have jobs which are essential sources of income (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1987). These couples operate this family type because it provides a source of income and not for the satisfaction derived. They might not have a stable source of income, relatively fewer years of educational experience, fewer job opportunities, hence careers might be undesirable or unattainable. It is also assumed that women in dual earner families experience or stress than their male counterparts as they have to maintain their traditional roles and the source of income. The relationship would be less egalitarian as the authority of one partner might be based on the economic contribution of that partner over the other.
c. New traditional family
It is known as New Traditional Family by Duxury, et al; two career family by Papanek(1973) and Senior-partner – Junior partner marriage by Scanzoni & Scanzoni (1981). This term reflects a high paying career position and the woman chooses to work in a less demanding job (most times this job if for satisfaction and psychological purposes not primarily income based). The husband is the primary provider while the woman takes care of the home – household chores and family needs. The fact that she has a means of generating income means that she is not economically dependent on her husband which may give her some form of power to make decisions. The wife’s level of conflict is greatly reduced because she can choose to quit her job anytime to focus on the family.
d. Status-reversal family
This is a complete different shift in the husband/breadwinner role. This is when the woman assumes the breadwinner role and the man has the junior partner role. This is rare and could bring about divorce or breakouts hereby leading to single parent families. The woman would be unable to reduce her career commitment as the economic status of the family rests on her. Women might tend to downplay their economic contributions and social activities, structure their lives so as to create a warm environment for husbands (Tichenor,1999). There might be shared responsibilities in this family type but women might do more to alleviate their guilt though the presence of spousal support would help in coping. In the Nigerian society, a woman who receives more income would likely relinquish her activities to the background so as to help her husband ‘save face’, a situation where she challenges the authority of her husband sometimes increasing the bargain/negotiation of issues in the family could warrant or cause her o lose her family.
Dual earner couples now outnumber their male breadwinner/female homemaker counterparts nearly three to one. It is important to note that while the average family income has increased, family income has declined (Baron, 1987). Families require two paychecks to maintain a minimal standard of living hence dual earner couples are not necessarily of high socioeconomic status. There are evidences that majority of working women in the Nigerian society have jobs not careers. Dual career parents could develop coping mechanisms like
• Delegating impersonal duties such as cleaning, ironing, washing.
• Handling more people oriented tasks like cooking’
• Employ house helps
There is a wide range of house helps made available to dual career couples and they are: short term, long term, full term, live in, live out, part time, nannies, au pairs, etc.
Related concepts
2.2 Theoretical Framework
To serve as the backbone for this research project, four theories would be examined as pertains to the variables being studied. Two would be related to dual career and two would be related to child abuse. The theories related to dual career:
Attachment theory was propounded by John Bowlby(1969) and Mary Ainsworth provided an empirical background to the work. Attachment is a deep, enduring emotional connection between one person and another across time and space (Ainsworth, 1973; Bowlby, 1969). Bowlby observed that children experienced intense distress when separated from their mothers. Even when fed by another person, the child still experiences anxiety according to the behavioral model of attachment (Dollard & Miller, 1950). In dual career parenting, the parents might not be able to create time enough to establish relationship with the child though the mother automatically has an emotional bond with the child after carrying it for 9 months and immediately after child birth, the father should also be able to spend time carrying or cuddling the child after birth hence developing attachment with the child. Fathers deal more with affiliation and play while mothers are more verbal and nurturing (Geiger,1996).
Attachment theory refers to the psychological concept of attachment: the tendency to seek closeness to another person and feel secure when that person is present. These bonds exist between two adults but between a child and an adult, the bond is needed for security, safety and protection(Schaffer R., 2007). The basic tenet is that a young child needs to develop a relationship with at least one caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. If extra consideration about the child is not factored into the career and plans of the parents, the child could experience some attachment disorders.
Types of attachments(Ainsworth, 1967)
1. Secure attachments – infants develop a secure attachment when caregiver is sensitive to their signals and responds appropriately to their needs. It is likely for anyone to possess a representational model of an attachment figure as being available, responsive and helpful (Bowlby,1980). When children develop a secure attachment with an attachment figure (maybe even grandparents), they are able to explore the world with the presence of this caregiver.
2. Ambivalent attachments – These children do not depend on the attachment figure when exploring the world. They do not develop feelings of security from attachment figures. Due to previous experience of uncertainties and inconsistencies in the response of their attention-seeking behaviors and care provided for by the caregiver, they learn not to rely on caregiver for attachments. The absence of the caregiver might cause distress.
3. Avoidant attachments – They are very independent physically and emotionally(Behrens, Hesse, & Main, 2007). They do not depend on attachment figures while investigating the environment. This is due to neglect by caregiver or parent hence, the child will show no preference between a stranger and caregiver.
These insecure attachment types are usually borne out of lack of maternal care and availability(though child could develop attachment with a caregiver) and the lack of secure attachments would lead to psychological disorders in the child such as conduct disorders, PTSD in cases of death of a loved one, inability to form attached relationships. When couples are planning for childbearing stage or period of their lifes, they should be able to bear in mind secure attachment figures for their children whether its them or grandparents either way it is essential and necessary as the lack of a secure attachment style could mean abuse or assault(by a stranger) of the child.
Social learning theory
This is also known as observational theory and was propounded by Albert Bandura(1986). This theory is basically to establish how humans learn in social contexts. The bobo doll experiment forms the basis for this theory as on watching adults exhibit aggression towards a doll, children did same when there was no form of punishment attached. The observation of abusive behaviors by children could lead to an exhibition of the behavior. The general principles of this theory are:
• Attention – This is required for a behavior to be observed and exhibited. No child can be abused without their attention. For example, family violence or physical abuse.
• Retention – Due to the experience, harm done to a child during an abuse episode, retention would not be an issue and the surrounding circumstances could aid retention.
• Reproduction – any information stored with due attention and retention would be asy to reproduce.
• Motivation – The punishment or reinforcement attached to the exhibition of a behavior would greatly affect the continuity of that behavior. The reward/satisfaction a person derives from the exhibition of a behavior is what drives the continuous exhibition of the behavior(Skinner, 1938).
Needs theory
This theory was propounded by Abraham Maslow(1943) presenting the idea that every human activity is directed towards the attainment of certain goals. According to Maslow, individual needs must first be met from the lowest and most basic needs to the highest and less important yet significant ones. These needs can create internal pressures that can influence a person’s behavior. He presented a pyramid of 7 needs which would be met for an individual to be self-actualized and fulfilled in their lifetime.
Self actualization
needs
Self worth
Love and belongingness
Safety or Security needs
Physiological needs
Fig 2.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
1. Physiological needs – the first and basic need is the need for survival; food, water, shelter, clothing. For these needs to be met, there has to be a source of income. For some dual earner families, the two incomes might be used for the provision of all of these needs.
2. Safety or security needs – Safety is the feeling of knowing that there is no harm or threat of harm. The availability or security of a job and knowing that there is a steady source of income could be the source of safety for a dual earner couple. The assurance that at least one partner would receive income at particular certain and guaranteed intervals could also be a source of security.
3. Love and belongingness needs – These needs are met through satisfactory interaction with people. In some traditional African societies where the woman is primarily meant to be a homemaker, she would likely not belong to any group of caliber and worth (except maybe church women association, association of fish sellers).
4. Self esteem needs – This represents the human need to be valued and respected by others. Engaging in a profession or hobby or being part of an organization gives a person some form of recognition. There are two types of esteem needs identified by Maslow which are self esteem; recognition from people and self respect; an understanding of who they are established through experience.
5. Self actualization – This is a person’s desire to be everything they want to be. Using all their talents and capacities to the fullest potentials. Maslow(1958) identified that only 1% of humans ever reach this potential.
ay in here…