STOP-GAPIN FAMILY CARE AS CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE TO YOUTHFUL DELINQUENCY IN THE CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN SOCIETY

Abstract

Early childhood care, education and good- grooming have been identified as proven
measures for raising the normal standard of children in the society. Although many
scholarly works have explored the issues of parental factors in isolation as contributing
to isolated problems of children, there are still relatively scarce studies on the effects of
stop-gaps in family care on the rising omnibus problems of the juvenile and youth in
the current state of affairs of the Nigerian sociopolitical reality. Based on two principal
and significant theories of adolescence and conformity, this write-up explores the links
between the presence or absence of the parental care in the upbringing of a child and
conforming or defiant codes that the growing youth exudes within the society. Since the
electronic and print media are daily inundated with reports of activities of the Nigerian
youth, the paper relies on records of the youth segment of the populace for our analysis.

Qualitative and sometimes, quantitative analyses form the bases of our conclusion. The
findings are that children who lack the full compliments of parental guide, care, love
and tutelage grow up into errant and deviant youth contributing social menace and
non-conforming social entities. The conclusion is that society should ensure that every
culture in Nigeria must provide the basis for children to enjoy the fullness of parental
guide, care and education to ensure that they are nurtured into youth with acceptable
social norms and desirable behavioural patterns.