THE PSYCHOSOCIAL DYNAMICS OF RELIGIOSITY ON CHILDREN'S BEHAVIOUR, IMPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY.

Abstract

The increasing rate of religiosity in any society breeds insecurity of any nature. The purpose of this paper is to explore psychosocial dynamics: peer influence, socio-economic status, religion, and family to determine the impacts of these dynamics on the religious behaviours of the children. The correlational survey design was used for this study, with simple random sampling
techniques. Data were collected using researcher designed questionnaire titled Psychosocial Dynamics of Religiosity on Children Behaviour Questionnaire (PDRCBQ). This study has a population of two thousand hundred and forty seventy (2,247) students, and a drawn sample of three hundred and thirty three respondents selected from four (15) secondary schools from Chanchaga LGA in Niger state. The students responded to a reliable and valid instrument pre-tested using 50 students who were not parts of the main study. Cronbach Alpha technique was used to analyse the data. The instrument demonstrated construct validity and reliability at 0.76. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was employed as statistical tools for test of Hypotheses while data were analysed using Pearson's r. The results indicated that there is high and significant relationship between students' religiosity and student's involvement in religious crisis; there is a significant relationship between parent's lack of religion and students' involvement in religious crisis; and there is a significant relationship between peer influence and students involvement in religious crisis. Therefore, it was recommended that parents should be held accountable for the children religiosity. School counsellors should be supported by both school authorities and government to intensify their services on counselling the students on the dangers of insecurity. The axiom “Religion is the opium of the masses” Government should consider the welfare of teachers with utmost seriousness particularly the religion teacher to make more serious with their responsibilities in school and society.