TEACHERS PERCEPTIONS ON THE IMPACT OF DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES ON CHILDREN’S PERSONALITY TRAIT DEVELOPMENT IN ODEDA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The family has an important role in developing a child's attitudes, beliefs, opportunities, habits and personality traits and also plays a critical function in determining who a child becomes and what he or she accomplishes. Dysfunctional families hurt children as they become withdrawn and socially isolated. This research investigates teachers’ perceptions on the impacts of dysfunctional families on children’s personality trait development in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State. A descriptive research design and a quantitative methodological approach were used in this study. A well-structured and standardized questionnaire on the above construct was used to collect data from 120 teachers. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of percentage, mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed that Teachers were knowledgeable of what a dysfunctional family is, with majority (96.7%) agreeing that a family can be dysfunctional, 87.5% also agreed that a family where one or both parents does not meet family obligations is dysfunctional. The findings also revealed that teachers are aware of the importance of personality traits in the developmental stages of children with 82.5% of the teachers agreed that children with healthy personality traits are more creative, attentive in classrooms and are easy to teach. Teachers’ perception is that dysfunctional families play negative roles in children’s personality trait development.  Consequent on these findings, it is recommended that Government and NGOs in charge of education should organize programmes annually to sensitize more teachers and parents on the impacts of dysfunctional families in children’s personality trait development.   Keywords: Perception, Dysfunctional Family, Personality Development, Traits, Children