Caregivers Characteristics and Nursery School Children’s Social Development in Uyo Metropolis, Akwa Ibom State

Abstract

This study determined the relationship between caregivers’ characteristics and nursery school children’s social skills development in Uyo Metropolis, Akwa Ibom State Nigeria. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The ex post facto design research design  was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 1184 nursery school caregivers. The sample size for the study was 120 caregivers drawn from the population. A researcher developed instrument titled ‘‘Caregivers Characteristics and Social Skill Development Questionnaire’’ (CCSSDQ) was used to gather data for the study. The instrument was face and content validated by three experts in Measurement and Evaluation, Sociology and Early Childhood Education. The Cronbach Alpha Reliability Coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the instrument using 25 nursery school caregivers outside the study area. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between caregivers’ attitudes, instructional strategies and motivations and nursery school children’s social skills development in Uyo Metropolis. Hence it was concluded that caregivers’ characteristic variables measured in this study remarkably relates with social skills development of nursery school children. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made, among others that caregivers should be supported and motivated through financial incentives as a way of encouraging them to display positive attitudes toward the children’s improvement in social skill developmental age-appropriate tasks.