CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

There has been growing concern in the Nigeria society regarding the increase in physical assault among
adolescents particularly those in orphanage homes such as beating, kicking, biting, shading, bullying,
pushing, strangling, stabbing, parent excessive physical discipline, bruises, injuries, dislocations,
fractures, stalking etc. which if persistent, its consequences won’t be within the four walls of orphanage
home alone but the society at large. According to Cornell Law School (2014), assault is an intentional
act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact.
Physical assault is any unlawful attempt or offer with force or violence to do a corporal hurt to another.
This is the use of physical force in a way that injures the victim or puts him/her at risk of being injured.
It includes beating, kicking, knocking, punching, choking, etc. Physical assault is one of the commonest
forms of abuse. Victims of physical assault are at high risk of poor health, not only to the physical
trauma they endure, but also the high rates of other social risk factors like growth problems, infectious
diseases, developmental delay, mental health and behavioral problems. It is noteworthy that victims of
serious physical assault are usually young to narrate their ordeal, and if older, may be too scared to do
so. Abusive injuries to children are most commonly found on the skin, but the most serious injuries
occur to the brain, abdomen and other internal organs.

Physical assault has been found to lead to delinquency in adolescent and subsequently violent crimes.
The adolescent may become socialized in violent behaviour. He or she may become confused and angry.
The anger may become directed towards his or her colleagues or peer group. They may become
aggressive and troublesome. They may also withdraw themselves thereby isolating from others and they
also perform below expectation academically.

Victims of physical assault (whether children or adults) may suffer physical injuries such as minor cuts,
scratches and bruises. Others may be more serious and cause lasting disabilities such as broken bones,
internal bleeding and head trauma, among others Dobson (2012). Some injuries are not physical but
emotional. Victims often have low self-esteem, finding it difficult to trust others. The anger and stress
experienced by victims may lead to depression and other emotional disorders sometimes leading to
suicide (Centre for disease control and Prevention, 2013). Victims may also exhibit harmful health
behavior like excessive smoking, alcohol abuse, use of drugs and engaging in risky sexual activity.

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An assaulted child, for instance, may grow up not to trust other people, may go into relationships with
an aggressive mode or may become withdrawn, afraid to go into intimate relationship. This usually
results in involvement in risky sexual behaviour. Growing up in an assaulted environment is what
makes a person find the sight of a suspect being beaten or burnt to death, entertaining and enjoyable. It
is what makes the youth happy and excited about being thugs for wicked politicians. Domestic violence
gives rise to a violent society because ‘charity begins at home”.

Thus, the traumatic experience of physical assault may have implications for victims that extend beyond
direct consequences (i.e. physical injuries) and lead to a disruption across a wide range of functions.
Research has linked the experience of crime with a number of negative consequences across the
psychosocial, financial, occupational, educational and health domains. Much of the research that
examines the impact of violent victimisation has focused on the psychological consequences. This
includes increased risk to the development of mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) Betts, Williams, Najman and Alati (2013); Freeman (2013). Other studies have linked
victimisation with feelings of fear Ansara and Hindin (2010), anger Ditton (2011), and stress Jones
(2012). However, engagement with formal and informal support networks has been found to decrease
the negative psychological impact of victimization Norris, Kaniasty and Thompson (2017).

In particular, victims of physical assault reported struggling with the physical effects of the crime. Kim,
Colantonio, Dawson and Bayley (2013) found that individuals who sustain a traumatic brain injury from
a physical assault, as opposed to a non-crime related incident experienced greater difficulty with daily
functioning. Victims of physical assault appear to struggle particularly with the impact of physical
injuries.

Social environment in which children live has a profound effect on their health and well-being.
Regardless of the type of maltreatment perpetrated against a child, the potential for lifelong physical and
emotional consequences is significant. Many times, physical assault results from inappropriate or
excessive physical discipline. A parent or caretaker in anger may be unaware of the magnitude of force
with which he or she strikes the child. Other factors that can contribute to child abuse include parents’
immaturity, lack of parenting skills, poor childhood, experiences and isolation, as well as situations of
frequent crises, drug or alcohol problems, and domestic violence. The way in which children are cared
for has a profound effect on their development with lifelong implications (Campbell, Conti, Heckman,
2014; Walker, Chang, 2011). United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (2017) article on

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violence in Nigeria reported that violence against children in Nigeria occurs in homes, families, schools,
communities and other places where children should feel safe. One could conclude that lack of proper
supervision and monitoring of the government and adults who are custodians failed to play their part
well. Assault in all its forms is a daily reality for many Nigerian children and only a fraction ever
received help. Nigeria orphanages may appear to be where the most physical assault act occur, probably
because there of less supervision and proper monitoring. The use of Bibliotherapy to address physical
assault in Nigerian Orphanages is a new and dynamic approach which could go a long way to promote a
healthy living environment for the young children in orphanage homes. Children and adolescents have
always been an important focus of study for mental health researchers. Studies have highlighted
emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, and difficulties in social interaction as well as
behavioral problems such as hyperactivity and conduct problems in them.

Emotional and behavioral problems are more among orphans and other vulnerable children because they
are exposed to assault, exploitation, neglect, lack of love and care of parents. They are also more likely
to be emotionally needy, insecure, and poor. In addition to these factors, most of them are brought up in
institutional homes where individual care is inadequate. All these factors can socially and emotionally
impair these children. According to the UNICEF 2012, there are more than 25 million orphan or
abandoned and about 44 million destitute children. Very few studies have been done on the
psychological health of these children and adolescents leaving a yawning gap for further research.

Obasola (2013) asserted that young adults’ aggressive behaviour is any intentional physical, sexual or
psychological assault on another person(s) between the ages of 12 to 19 years. Recent happenings in
Nigeria revealed that about 80 or more percent of crime committed in the nation and worldwide is
perpetuated by young adults who are devastating and an issue of concern for national growth. Most
young adults display highest levels of physical assault in childhood and this behaviour declines with the
age with proper care and concentration Onukwufor (2013).

Worldwide, children’s homes are striving to meet the needs of orphans who are vulnerable and struggle
to care for themselves independently. Structures of orphanages vary from institutional care, to homes
with a more family-based style of care. Without the nurturing, guidance and resources that parents
provide, orphan children have significant needs and are faced with the number of challenges in
providing necessary items for themselves. There is a need for government, organizations and individuals
to support these vulnerable children in order to prepare them for a better and successful adult life.

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Orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) living in institutional homes are more prone to behavioral
and emotional problems than others as they are deprived of a family’s love and care. Orphans in most of
the areas have faced many crises over the past times that have led them to be in need of support. For
example, in Nigeria, civil war, violence caused by religious, ethical or political crisis and floods are the
main causes of poverty, loss of lives and difficult living conditions that many societies still facing in the
country more especially in Northern Nigeria. Over 2,000,000 children were raised without one or both
of their parents. These issues have led to a great need for orphan support throughout Nigeria.

Thus, an orphanage can be defined as a place which looks after the well-being of a child, when no one
else is there to take care of him/her. Again, it is a home away from home where society as a whole takes
care of him/her. Natural parents, and sometimes natural grandparents, are lawfully accountable for
taking care of the children, but in the absence of these or other relations who are not prepared to care for
the children, they turn out to be a responsibility of the state, and here, the orphanages play a major role
in providing them housing, education and care. It is a general perception among the people that all
children residing in orphanages are complete orphans, which is not the case all the times, as has been
observed that almost eighty percent of the inmates in the world orphanages have at least one surviving
parent and majority of them have extended families. A few large international charities usually fund
orphanages; however, most of them are still funded by smaller charities and religious groups. Besides,
orphanages there are many other institutions which provide residential facility to the children and are
known as refuges, IDPs children’s home, group homes, night shelters, rehabilitation centers or youth
treatment centers. Children who are deprived of the parental care and a secure family environment often
become vulnerable to a host of psychological problems and psychiatric disorders. These children are
then usually reared in institutional homes set up by the government or private agencies which provide
some semblance of order into their lives. In these homes, problems of overcrowding, inadequate
personal attention, poor academic environment, and frequent moves may affect the psychological health
of these children. This programme structure not only cares for the children’s basic needs but also helps
to prepare them to be independent when the time comes. Children’s homes opened to provide care and
support to orphans but often times run into issues ranging from lack of finances to inadequate staffing.

Elegbeleye (2013), regarded Orphans and Vulnerable children (OVC) as a child that has lost one or both
parents. The loss of one parent classifies a child as a single orphan and the loss of both parents as a
double orphan. Young adults in care homes may suffer from low level of satisfaction of their

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psychological needs which affects their socialization. This does not allow them to build social skills and
expertise that are required to build normal socio interaction with their peers. Care homes with low level
of residential care, most of the orphans have many problems such as confusion, attention deficit disorder
and hyperactivity; they may also have low academic achievement and acquisition of language and social
skills which are necessary to communicate with others. Some orphanage environments are characterized
by lack of ability to properly respond to future situations, or the tendency for the environment to respond
predictably to behaviour (McAllister, Flynn, and Alexander, 2014).

Bibliotherapy can go a long way to help young Nigerian Orphans and Vulnerable children (OVC) who
are experiencing physical assault or other similar form of abuse that may likely to encounter problems
similar to the problems discusses in the contemporary literature that will be read by young adults in care
homes. Moulton (2014) emphasized that reading carefully selected assault stories with children offers a
cost effective and quick strategy to initiate conversation about physical assault as well as help strengthen
bystander (like teachers, guardians) to provide support for young assaulted orphans and build proactive
efforts against physical assault.

The term bibliotherapy is a combination of “biblio” and “therapy”. ‘Biblio’ is a greek word that means
“book” or “relating to book” while ‘therapy’ means “healing, remedy, treatment, or cure” In the
words of Alex (1993) as cited in Adebayo (2017), bibliotherapy is a technique used to assist individuals
to overcome negative emotions related to a real-life problem by guided reading about the dilemmas
of a third person, followed by individual or group discussion in a non-threatening environment.
Sometimes referred to as, biblioguidance, bibliocounseling, literatherapy, book matching or reading
therapy. According to the free Dictionary (2014), bibliotherapy is “A form of supportive psychotherapy
in which carefully selected reading materials are used to assist a subject in solving personal problems or
for other therapeutic purposes.” The online dictionary for Library and Information science (ODLIS.
2011) defined bibliotherapy as the use of books selected on the basis of content in a planned reading
programme designed to facilitate the recovery of patients suffering from mental illness or emotional
disturbance. It is vivid that from all the above definitions, bibliotherapy requires some form of reading
treated by a specialist; one of the ways of treating such problems is to consult a librarian who will
recommend a book or other electronic resources for you to read and digest. That service is called
bibliotherapy.

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Bibliotherapy can be described as the process of reading self-help books to help people (both young and
adults) solves certain difficulties they may be facing in their lives at a particular time. This involves
reading specific books or e-books which are related to certain challenges in someone’s life. Rozalski
(2010) describes bibliotherapy as a projective in direct tool that employs literature for growth of children
that can be used to teach children on life’s challenges by encouraging them to connect with book
character, thereby letting readers evaluate their individual. The goal of bibliotherapy is to broaden and
deepen the children’ understanding of a particular problem that requires attention. The written book may
educate the children about their problem itself or be used to increase their acceptance of a proposed
treatment. Moreover, bibliotherapy has been found to be helpful in addressing the problem of students
that are prone to unruly behavior as Adeyeye and Oyewusi (2017) reported that there was modification
in the behavior of adolescents in correctional homes when exposed to bibliotherapy session in Nigeria.
Also, adolescents going through the pains of bereavement may receive comfort through bibliotherapy
intervention such that when affected young adults are exposed to books written either by authors who
were once bereaved or authors that address bereavement, the needed emotional comfort and physical
relief can be accessed through their stories (Mesa County Library, 2017).

As a therapeutic method of psychological healing, stories have the ability to diagnose inner secrets and
feelings and that helps to construct the content of unacknowledged unfinished issues, stored memories
and denied feelings in a non-frightening manner. Stories also help in transferring suppressed content
matter gradually to the region of the conscious brain, which allays pains and improves problem-solving
skills of young adults. Stories promote self-esteem among young adults in orphanages and help them
deal with those of their desires that lean toward aggression, assault, etc. They also help in getting rid of
fear and helplessness, developing cognitive abilities and adopting constructive styles of behaviour.
Through stories, young adult finds room to release his instincts and desires; he acquires feelings and
impressions that suit his different phases of growth, as stories provide him with characters that suffer
from similar problem. Bibliotherapy also helps orphanages in developing the young adult’s hobbies and
emotions, and gears it toward a positive direction. Then, the orphanage may be freed of frustrations and
confusions, and to analyze attitudes and behaviours, and deepen self-esteem and self-confidence.

Many studies have been done within and outside Nigeria on bibliotherapy, however, few researches
have been carried out on physical assault among young adults in orphanage homes in Oyo state.

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Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the effect of bibliotherapy on physical assault among young
adults in orphanage homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria.

1.2. Statement of the problem

Over the years, occurrences of physical assault among young adults in Nigeria particularly in care
homes have been on the increase at an alarming rate. It has been observed that when children are
deprived of parental care and supervision, they can be vulnerable to various forms of abuse which could
lead them into developing aggressive tendencies such as physical assault. Young adults in orphanages
involve in both verbal and physical assault (kicking, hitting, pushing, provocation, pushing, insult,
brutality, fighting, dislocations, etc.), this development has both economic and social implications for
the nation.

On a visit to a care home, the researcher observed that traces of physical assault such as bruises, swollen
wounds, cuts from injuries and the likes, were all evident on the young adults in the care home. This can
lead to lifelong emotional trauma, lackadaisical attitude toward others, inattentiveness in class,
malnutrition, poor social integration, thuggery among others. If nothing is done to arrest the situation,
such children would grow up to constitute nuisance to the society. Efforts put in place to curb physical
assault by the care givers, religious and humanitarian organisations who visit the homes frequently seem
not to have yielded the desired result. Therefore, there is the need to seek for another effective
intervention to address this menace. It is in the light of this that the researcher is of the opinion that the
use of bibliotherapy which is a therapeutic tool for treating psychological and emotional behavioral
problems would suffice.

It is evident that previous studies have been conducted on the use of bibliotherapy as a therapeutic tool
for treating psychological and emotional behavioural problems among young adults, the researcher is
not aware of any study that had employed bibliotherapy to treat physical assault among young adults in
care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. This study therefore seeks to fill this gap by providing
empirical information on the effect of bibliotherapy on physical assault among young adults in care
homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria with a view to finding out the potency of this intervention in
reducing the level of physical assault/abuse among young adults in the care homes.

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1.3 Objectives of the study

The general objective of this study was to determine the effect of bibliotherapy on physical assault
among care homes in Ibadan. The specific objectives of this study are to determine the:

1. Main effect of bibliotherapy treatment on physical assault of young adults in care homes in
Ibadan, Oyo state.
2. Main effect of gender on physical assault of young adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.
3. The main effect of age on physical assault of young adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.
4. Interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment and gender on physical assault of young adults in
care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.
5. Interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment and age on physical assault of young adults in care
homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.
6. Interaction effect of gender and age on physical assault among young adults in care homes in
Ibadan.
7. The interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment, gender and age on physical assault in young
adults in care homes in Ibadan.

1.4 Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.

H01: There is no significant main effect of bibliotherapy treatment on physical assault among young
adults in care homes in Ibadan.

H02: There is no significant main effect of gender on physical assault among young adults in care
homes in Ibadan.

H03: There is no significant main effect of age on physical assault among young adults in care homes in
Ibadan.

H04: There is no significant interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment and gender on physical assault
among young adults in care homes in Ibadan.

H05: There is no significant interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment and age on physical assault
among young adults in care homes in Ibadan.

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H06: There is no significant interaction effect of gender and age on physical assault among young adults
in care homes in Ibadan.

H07: There is no significant interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment, gender and age on physical
assault among young adults in care homes in Ibadan.

1.5 Scope of the study:

This study investigated the effect of bibliotherapy as a tool of behavioural modification among young
adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The research is a quasi-experimental research which
will be carried out in two different care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The duration of the
intervention programme (bibliotherapy) was six weeks; the respondents were young adults in care
homes in Oyo state between age 12 and 18 years old. The study made use of FOMWAN Orphanage,
Akobo as the experimental group, and Oluyole Cheshire Home, Sango, Ibadan as the control group.

1.6 significance of the study:

The findings of the study would be of great help to all care homes in Nigeria. Also, the habit of reading
would be inculcated among young adults in care homes in Nigeria. The study would help the state
government especially the Oyo state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social welfare, and the foundation
in policy making related to care homes in Ibadan and entrenching bibliotherapy as an intervention
method for curtailing physical assault or behavioural modification in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state,
Nigeria.

Government, stakeholders, and other top officials in charge of care homes could see the need to employ
competent librarian who’ll work in care homes and serve as bibliotherapist. Authors, writers, and
publishers of literature books written for children will be motivated to write more of literature text on
physical assault for OVC in care homes. Lastly, the study could be a useful reference material to future
researchers who are interested in the area of book therapy and physical assault among care homes in
Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria

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1.7 Operational definition of terms:

The following terms were explained as used in the study:

Bibliotherapy refers to the use of fiction books as a form of therapy help in realizing behavior
modification for young adult in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria.

Care home refers to residential homes providing shelter, care, love and protection for the young people
in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria.

Orphans and Vulnerable children are children under the age of 18 whose mother, father, both parents,
or a primary caregiver had died or abandoned living in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria.

Physical assault: This is a non-accidental trauma or physical injury caused by punching, beating,
kicking, biting, that results in harm for the child’s health, survival, development or dignity experienced
by young adult in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the literature relevant to the study. The literature pertinent to the study was
reviewed under the following headings:

2.1 Conceptual Review

2.1.1 The importance of Care Homes in Nigeria.

2.1.2 Physical assault among young adults.

2.1.3 Use of bibliotherapy in Care Homes.

2.2 Empirical Review

2.2.1 Bibliotherapy and physical assault in Nigeria.

2.2.2 Influence of age on physical assault among young adults.

2.2.3 Influence of gender on physical assault among young adults.

2.3 Theoretical framework

2.3.1 Frustration-aggressive model.

2.3.4 Conceptual Model.

2.4 Appraisal of the Literature Reviewed.

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2.1 Conceptual Review

2.1.1 The importance of Care Homes in Nigeria.

Care Homes are owned and controlled by private and public institutions intended to provide welfare,
education and accommodation for children and young adults without parents, guardians and abandoned
children. A care home is a residential institution devoted to the care of large numbers of children and
young adults. According to Hancock (2014) care homes are established by the government and non-
governmental bodies to cater for abandoned children and the vulnerable. In a study carried out by
Elegbeleye (2017) on predators of the mental health of orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria. It
was revealed that orphans are the responsibility of the state and therefore, various governments, non-
governmental and faith- based institutions are established to supplement or substitute paternal care and
supervision, to promote the overall well-being of orphans and vulnerable children. The care and
protection of children Act, 2015 reiterated the need for a child-friendly to ensure care, protection,
development, treatment and support for orphans, abandoned and vulnerable children and young adults.
Folaranmi and Ogunkanmi (2015) carried out a study on child detachment as a correlate of social well-
being among orphaned children in selected orphanages in Ibadan and Abeokuta, Nigeria. A total of 350
respondents were purposively selected from the four orphanages using purposive sampling technique.
The study found that that many of the orphanages established across Nigeria especially in Oyo state are
owned by individuals, Faith Based Organizations and Non-Governmental Organisation sponsored by
philanthropist and charity organization.

In Oyo state, orphanages and care homes are managed by Oyo state Ministry of Women Affairs,
Community Development, Social welfare and Poverty Alleviation Department, Finance and Accounts
Department, Administration and Supply Department and Planning Research and Statistics. Child welfare
department is in charge of orphanages in Oyo state, they participate in the review and formulation of
national and international policies that promote the rights of orphans and vulnerable children. They
ensure training and retraining of managers and care-givers of orphanages and also support institutions on
the relevant policies on OVC and allocation of more funds and services to the orphanages are
recommended. The child welfare unit also support the work of relevant non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) working for the realization and children’s right. They
also advocate for the passage and enforcement of laws that protect and project the interest of the

12
Ministry’s target groups particularly the child’s Rights Act 2003. There are registered orphanages in
Oyo state.

In a longitudinal study, Momoh (2010) monitored seven community-based organizations in 25 rural

communities in order to assess the provision of care and support for orphans. The findings noted that
the organizations, through external funding were able to provide nutritional, psychosocial, educational,
and health support for the orphans. The study concluded that funding continues to be the most
challenging factor facing community-based organizations in their bid to support services to orphans in
rural communities. Also, the information gathered from the directory of orphanages in Nigeria as
compiled by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (2007), showed that most
of the orphanages in Nigeria depend largely on donations, agricultural ventures and subventions; and as
reported by virtually all orphanages which obtain subventions, such subventions were irregular and
inadequate. Furthermore, the general observation made from the compilation of the directory of
orphanages in Nigeria by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (2007)
reveals the great disparity in the available facilities in Nigerian orphanages. Some orphanages have
ultra-modern physical settings while some are in dilapidated states. According to Ajayi (2014), the
federal Government of Nigeria is a signatory to the Rights of Children (CRC) and the African Charter
on Rights and welfare of children (ACRWC). Among other efforts, the federal government and relevant
stakeholders organized a national conference which reviewed the orphans and the vulnerable children
situation in Nigeria and made recommendations on ways to tackle the issue.

A recent study carried out by Federal Ministry of women affairs and social development in 2015, it was
revealed that Nigeria has one of the largest burdens of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in the
world and is facing an orphan and vulnerability crisis of potentially catastrophic proportions.
Assessment revealed that 17.5 million (24.5%) of Nigerian children are OVC. Evidence also exist to
show that orphans in Nigeria live in deplorable conditions and are exposed to neglect, exploit, abuse and
deprived of basic human rights and needs (UNICEF, 2013). Thus, Nigeria is facing an emergency
situation in which millions of children are in dire need of care and special protection measures
(McKenaa, 2010). The burden of poverty makes families and communities unable to cope with the
increased number of orphans (McKenna, 2010). Orphanage or other group residential facilities may
seem a logical response to growing orphans and other vulnerable children. In Oyo state, orphanages are
managed by Oyo State Ministry of Women Affairs, community development, social welfare and poverty

13
alleviation. Presently, the Ministry operates through eight departments, so as to ensure effectiveness and
efficiency in carrying out of her mandate. Child welfare department is in charge of orphanages in Oyo
state, they participate in the review and formulation of national and international policy that promote the
rights of orphans and also support institutions on the relevant policies on OVC and allocation of more
funds and services to the orphanages are recommended. Child welfare unit also support the work of
relevant non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) working for
the realization and children’s right. They also advocate for the passage and enforcement of laws that
protect and project the interest of the Ministry’s target groups particularly the Child’s Rights Act 2003.
There are 42 registered orphanages and care homes in Oyo state.

Care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state are saddled with the responsibility of providing care, support, safety
and basic needs for orphans and vulnerable children. They also provide quality love, guidance and
attention for orphans for them to develop in a healthy way and to become responsible members of the
society. Jakachira (2013) asserts that care home plan for the welfare of the children including succession
planning and will writing. One major challenge confronting orphanage in Oyo state is the lack of quality
accommodation, sound education for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs).

Observation made from literature show that in most care homes, some of the caregivers are not properly
trained to adequately respond to the needs of the children, and apart from this, the number of children
being catered for largely surpasses the number of available caregivers. This, of course, makes it near
impossible for the caregivers to give maximum attention and care to one single child per time.

2.1.2 Physical assault of young adults in Care Homes.

Physical assault is a behaviour that threatens or cause physical harm to others. It is a term used by
psychologists to describe any behaviour put up by an individual against another with the sole aim of
inflicting pain. Young adult with Physical assault tends to be irritable, impulsive, and restless. Physical
assault is an intentional act which violates social norms, and causes a breakdown in a relationship. In
the words of Gabbey (2013), emotional problem is one of the most common causes of physical assault
among young adults in orphanages. Physical assault is can be reactive or in retaliation. It can also be
proactive as an attempt to provoke a victim. It can either be overt or secretive. Occasional outbursts of
physical assault are common and even normal especially among young adults.

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According to Malcom, Attard, Arenovich, Kolla, Blackwood and Hodgind (2013) stated that physical
assault is an action carried out by an individual with the intention to damage, destroy or cause injury or
harm or anxiety to others or even to oneself or the devastation of one’s property or that of another
person’. Physical assault among young adults has been defined as a harmful behaviour which violates
social conventions and which may include behavioural traits like deliberate intention to harm and injure
another individual or object. Young adults’ behavioural traits are markedly influenced by the
environment. Frustration from physical assault trauma can lead to unachieved goals in young adults.
Imhonde (2014) was of the opinion that physical assault is a defiant behaviour prominent among young
adults of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm.

According to Obikeze (2014), the period of been a young adult is one of the periods of developmental
stage. It is a stage where an individual is faced with the problem of shedding of the relatively
comfortable role of a child or that of a reasonable adult. It is a transition between childhood and
adulthood. It is regarded as the most crucial part of human lives. It is a period during which human
being move from childhood tom adulthood mentally, emotionally, socially and physically. This period
has been portrayed as a period of emotional turmoil.

According to Chukwu (2013), the stage of young adult is a transitional stage, it’s regarded a difficult
stage and a delicate stage that needs to be handled with caution. Chukwu also described this transition
stage as a period of storm and stress. It is a period when young adults begin to assert themselves in
various ways by throwing away “tradition in general and questioning the teachings of care-givers,
teachers and other authority figures.” At this stage, they are very eager and desirous to learn from the
adults.

Clow (2016) asserted that a young adult’s behaviour is the result of a combination of biological,
environmental and cultural factors. Though, not new in human history, technological advancement and
other forms of progress, besides their many advantages, have also created some distinct changes in
society, such as the weakening role the family fulfils in the upbringing of its young ones and a decline of
the authority of the school and the orphanage.

Young adults wish to control their own lives but find life full of frustrating obstacles. Young adults also
like to enjoy what adults regard to as good life. When they have no normal access to items of comfort,
they may attempt to get them through non-conventional ways. This situation most time leads to diverse

15
kind of assault (Almoshaigeh, 2017). Invariably, these indicate that aggressive behaviour is widespread
and greater number of assault act caused by young adults.

According to Raol, Jannah and Daesik (2016), bibliotherapy can contribute in the realization of their
worth and to give new meaning to their situations. It can help to accomplish adequate personality
development and interpersonal relationships. The use of literature and identifying how to live more
effectively through the characters and problems featured in a book enables young adults to increase their
insight and understanding of the themes and experiences as it relates to their own lives.

2.1.3 Use of bibliotherapy in Care Homes.

Rozalski (2010) describes bibliotherapy as a projective in direct tool that employs literature for growth
of children that can be used to teach children on life’s challenges by encouraging them to connect with
book character, thereby letting readers evaluate their individual. The goal of bibliotherapy is to broaden
and deepen the children’ understanding of a particular problem that requires attention. Bibliotherapy can
be described as the process of reading self-help books to help people (both young and adults) solves
certain difficulties they may be facing in their lives at a particular time. This involves reading specific
books or e-books which are related to certain challenges in someone’s life.

The online dictionary for Library and Information science (ODLIS. 2011) defined bibliotherapy as the
use of books selected on the basis of content in a planned reading programme designed to facilitate the
recovery of patients suffering from mental illness or emotional disturbance. It is vivid that from all the
above definitions, bibliotherapy requires some form of reading treated by a specialist; one of the ways of
treating such problems is to consult a librarian who will recommend a book or other electronic resources
for you to read and digest. That service is called bibliotherapy. Bibliotherapy can go a long way to help
young Nigerian OVC who is experiencing physical assault or other similar form of abuse that may likely
to encounter problems similar to the problems discusses in the contemporary literature that will be read
by young adults in the orphanage. Moulton (2012) emphasized that reading carefully selected assault
stories with children offers a cost effective and quick strategy to initiate conversation about physical
assault as well as help strengthen bystander (like teachers, guardians) to provide support for young
assaulted orphans and build proactive efforts against physical assault.

A study was conducted by Gladding (2014) to assess the effectiveness of bibliotherapy as a strategy to
help students with bullying which is one of the forms of physical assault. Salient research findings

16
pertinent to teasing and bullying have made their way into children literature over the course of child
adolescent teasing in schools which sixth grade students were exposed to fictional stories (bibliotherapy)
about bullying and teasing after which children have shared their own non-fictional account of this
experience. The researcher concluded that bibliotherapy was effective in reducing stress experienced by
the bullied students and helped them to develop coping strategies to deal with bullying and teasing that
takes place in schools. Also, another research by Beck was conducted to determine whether
bibliotherapy has an effect on the anxiety levels of fifth grade students. The sample size includes two
groups of fifth graders in a local educational setting in a southern United State. Group A received two
weeks of bibliotherapy intervention including one-hour lessons per week while Group B received
traditional treatment. Post treatment anxiety was measured and compared after categorizing participants
into low stress or high stress. The findings suggested a significant relationship between the use of
bibliotherapy and lower levels of anxiety (Alana, 2014).

Ajayi (2014) investigated bibliotherapy as an alternative approach to children’s emotional disorder; the
study discovered that bibliotherapy leads to the reduction of the level of emotional disorder among
children. Bibliotherapy is a mechanism to build young adult’s self-confidence, correct and prevent
aggressive behaviour (Saboula, Attia and Eman, 2015). In the study carried out by Montgomrey and
Maunders (2015) on the effectiveness of creative bibliotherapy for internalizing, externalizing, and
prosocial behaviours in young adult: A systematic review. The analysis showed that bibliotherapy has
the ability to diagnose inner secrets and feelings and that helps to construct the content of
unacknowledged unfinished issues, stored memories and denied feelings in a non-frightening manner.

Bibliotherapy can also help in transferring suppressed content matter gradually to the region of the
conscious brain, which allays pains and improves problem-solving skills. Muller, Rohde, Gau, and Stice
(2015) also assert that bibliotherapy can promote self-esteem among young adults in orphanages and
help them deal with those of their desires that lean toward assault. They also help in getting rid of fear
and helplessness, developing cognitive abilities and adopting constructive styles of behaviour. Camp
(2015) believe through stories, young adult will finds room to release their instincts and desires; they
acquire feelings and impressions that suit their different phases of growth, as stories provided them with
characters that suffer from similar problem.

Through a dynamic interaction between the reader and story, bibliotherapy intervention can help young
adults in coping with life changes, death of loved ones emotional issues, and behavioural challenges

17
(Stewart, Ames, 2014; Walwyn and Rowley, 2011). The therapeutic process of bibliotherapy may be an
effective intervention for facilitating healthy development and preventing assault, which creates the
potential for self-growth, understanding, and healing (Allen, 2012). The main purpose of bibliotherapy
is to share information, provide insight, promote the discussion of feelings, demonstrate new attitudes
and values, show that others have similar problems, and to provide lasing solutions to problems
(Kenewischer, 2013). Bibliotherapy, as a psychosocial intervention, has been shown to improve the
coping skills of young adults who have experienced emotional problems and trauma (Pola and Nelson,
2014).

Orphans and vulnerable children who have been a victim of assault have experienced emotional
problems are at greater risk for developing aggressive behaviour and often struggle to express feelings
that may affect their ability to cope with daily life (Gangi, Barowsky, Pola and Nelson 2014). Helping
young adults develop skills, providing relaxation techniques, and address the psychological needs of
young adults in care homes through the use of bibliotherapy. Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic process of
guided discussion of literature that provides an experience used to treat emotional and behavioural
problems (Stewart and Ames, 2014). It is an effective strategy for facilitating healthy growth and
overcoming problems.

According to McCulliss and Chamberlain (2013), bibliotherapy can be effective in changing the
operations of care homes. It has been utilized in numerous ways through poetry writing, drawing,
creative writing such as story-telling. It can help young adults change their thinking about their personal
situation and modify their behaviours. This occur when the young adults express associations with the
character in the literature text, thus, helping them to understand their own experiences and providing
insight into their emotions. According to Rubin (1978) in Kamalie (2016), there are two types of books
used for bibliotherapy which are; Self-help or didactic books and creative or fiction books. Didactic/self-
help books are designed to educate, inform, and to lead people to understand. It is instructional and
educative. They know, they understand and they can use the information, but they do not experience
vicariously nor have the experience of catharsis upon which to base their insight. Others, however,
project themselves into the descriptions of situations so strongly and compellingly that the selection of
literature for them is a matter for sensitive and aware librarian. It can be found in nearly any topic and it
helps to facilitate a direct change within the young adult through a cognitive understanding of self.

18
While, creative or fiction books are dramatic presentation of human behaviour through drama, play,
storybooks, poetry, biography and autobiography. Facts have it that fiction books have the possibility to
bring about the modification within the young adults (Salloum, Scheeringa, and Storch, 2014). The
therapist should be familiar with the book and its theme when deciding the book to use in
bibliotherapeutic treatment (Szente, 2016). It reconstitutes the human experience, whether through the
recounting of a life in a good biography, the capturing of the essence of meaning in poetry, or the
creation of a meaningful fictional situation, whether novel or short story. The fiction books are dramatic
presentation of human behaviour through drama, play, storybooks, poetry, biography and autobiography.
The therapist should be familiar with the book and its theme when decidibng the book to use in
bibliotherapeutic treatment. Drama is the essence of creative literature, although for many users the film
version is an easier re-enactment than is the reading of the printed play-script. Similarly, poetry which is
a difficult form for many may be more accessible to understanding through the recorded oral
interpretation by the poet or a sensitive reader.

According to Adeyeye and Oyewusi (2017), bibliotherapy involves reading books and poems in order to
make young people feel better in themselves and about themselves in order to be able to cope with
problems relevant to their situations and development needs at appropriate time. Bibliotherapy is
basically of two types, the clinical bibliotherapy and developmental bibliotherapy. According to
Kamalie (2016) there are those librarians who identify two types of bibliotherapy, namely, clinical,
developmental, and institutional.

According to McCullis, (2012), clinical bibliotherapy refer to the use of imaginative literature, such as
autobiographies, biographies, plays, novels, poems, short stories for group of clientels with emotional
and psychological problems, the goal range from insight to modify behaviour. These clients may or may
not participate voluntarily, and they are guided by a therapist. According to Schlenther (1999) in
Oyewusi (2018) clinical bibliotherapy is often used in an institution. It is more formal, with the
facilitator usually trained in psychology. It is used with people experiencing severe emotional or
behavioural problems, probably in a psychiatric hospital, child development centre or similar institution.
While the developmental setting, however, is not so formal. It can be used with anyone going through
life crisis, and the facilitator or career is a librarian.

McAllister, Brien, Flynn, and Alexander (2014) posit that, developmental bibliotherapy is any planned
use of books carried out with the aim of influencing personal growth and development. Reading about

19
other people and situations and discussing them, young adult will gain insight into life and how to cope
with it, and thereby knowing that they are not alone; that no one is perfect; and that we all have
problems (Lucas and Soares, 2013). The value of bibliotherapy is that the book acts a catalyst for
thinking of ways to cope with and solve the problems of living.

According to Gildea and Levin (2013), bibliotherapy as a therapeutic method relies upon the sympathy
of the reader or listener toward the story character and event, which causes him to leave through them.
Then, he may be free of his frustrations and confusions and release the feelings suppressed in his
unconscious brain. This, in turn, helps the reader and listeners perceive his feelings and deal with them.
Stories are considered a source of expression for hidden motives and gear it towards a positive direction
(Coboby, 2013) considers bibliotherapy a constructive experience for the readers and listeners and a
substitute for any deficiency from his early growth stages. Thus, it releases the psychological pressure
and increase the understanding of others. Bibliotherapy enables young adults to expresses himself, his
feelings and his problems freely, and thus, helps him to analyse his attitudes and behaviours and deepen
his self-esteem and self-confidence. It also gives him new alternative perceptions and solutions for his
problems. At the same time, it strengthens its values, principles and moral behaviours (Ajayi, 2014).
Reading or listening to stories provides therapeutic experiences and helps confronts behaviours frankly
and objectively which leads to the adoption of positive reactions.

Bibliotherapy is effective in changing the culture of a school or academic institutions. Bibliotherapy has
been utilized in numerous ways through poetry writing, drawing, creative writing such as story-telling,
and the development of plays for members of the school to present to the entire school or class
(Freeman, 2016). Gregory and Vessey (2014) identify three phases for effective use of bibliotherapy
interventions, the recognition of the problem, purging, and understanding. A key recommendation for
the selection of a book series is the element of problem solving. Often redirecting student aggression
with positive methods of communication and problem solving are effective. Bibliotherapy introduces
characters in text that appeal to children at different stages of growth and development (Freeman, 2016).
The age appropriate characters lead the students through lessons in empathy, caring, socialization, team
building, and problem-solving. The goal is to encourage the students to see how specific behaviors make
others feel, and to provide interaction that can lead to better socialization, and problem-solving skills
(Freeman, 2016). As there is strong evidence to support the use of universal school-based interventions,
the goal should be to utilize bibliotherapy across an entire grade, age group, or school system as an

20
intervention for assault. Parents, faculty, and members of the community can come together to research
a book series, pursue funding for the purchase of the series and training, and participate in the use of the
series within the school. The bibliotherapy series should be selected based upon relevance to the student
population, culture, age appropriateness, ease of use, and interesting stories. Parents and faculty for the
grade, age, or school system selected should participate in the reading program. The reading program
should utilize both parents and faculty members to devote at least 30 minutes of reading time to the
young adult each day. It would be feasible to take one class period and introduce the bibliotherapy
series. The effectiveness can be evaluated by tracking the number of incidences of assault behavior prior
to, during, and after the intervention. The expectation is that there will be a reduction in the reported and
observed cases of assault, young adults will report a decrease in being assaulted, and the culture of the
school will support positive methods of dealing with problems between peers, greater acceptance of
others, and age appropriate socialization. The context, input, process, and product (CIPP) model can be
utilized effectively when evaluating the bibliotherapy intervention (Freeman, 2016). The context stage
requires an understanding of the issue that requires change, the tasks and time necessary to develop an
intervention, and evaluation of the potential interventions. The input stage requires research of other
options, and a further refinement of an intervention (Freeman, 2016). The process stage requires
continuous review of the intervention during implementation with the goal being to determine what, if
any, alterations are necessary (Brown A, Dyches TT, Heath MA, Moulton E, Prater MA, 2011). The
product stage evaluates the success of the intervention and determines if change has occurred (Brown A,
Dyches TT, Heath MA, Moulton E, Prater MA, 2011). The intervention can be viewed as successful if
each stage of the CIPP model is met during development, implementation, and evaluation.
According to Skinner (2016), things that should be applied in using bibliotherapy include: selection of
stories suitable to the young adult’s feelings and the difficulties that face them. Helping young adult to
analyze all story components; selecting stories that are fit for the young adults’ age. For example, pre-
adolescent children like fiction, young adults lean toward adventures and post-adolescents favour love
stories. Saboula, Attia and Eman (2015) assert that bibliotherapy is a way of helping someone solves
his/her problems using books. It will serve as a mechanism to build up their self-confidence, and avoid
assault behaviour. Tool to tackle this situation.

2.2 Empirical Review

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2.2.1 Bibliotherapy and physical assault in Nigeria.

Recent happenings in Nigeria revealed that about 80 or more percent of crime committed in the nation
and worldwide is perpetuated by young adults who are devastating and an issue of concern for national
growth. Most young adults display highest levels of physical assault in childhood and this behaviour
declines with the age with proper care and concentration Onukwufor (2013). From the findings of
Onukwufor, he opined that physical assault is exhibited at childhood while growth declines the level of
physical assault in young adults. This stand was negated by Obasola (2013) who asserted that young
adults’ assault behaviour is any intentional physical, sexual or psychological assault on another
person(s) between the ages of 12 to 19 years. Traditionally, in Nigeria, as in many other African
countries, the beating of children is widely sanctioned as a form of discipline (UNICEF, 2001) as cited
in Aihie (2010). Therefore, in beating their-children parents believe they are instilling discipline in them,
much the same way as in husbands beating their wives, who are regarded like children to be prone to
indiscipline which must be curbed.

Victims of assault are often in a position of dependence (financial, emotional, physical and otherwise)
on the person abusing them. Children are often principal victims of domestic violence in Nigeria due to
witnessing abuse and living in an environment where someone else, usually a care giver is a victim of
abuse, can be psychologically devastating for a child. Straus (1994) as cited in Aihie (2010) reported
that children who are hit by parents have higher rates of depression than those whose parents disciplined
in other ways and are more likely to think about suicides. Some researchers have also found that
children whose mothers were abused by their partners have intelligence quotients (IQs) lower than
usual. Assault punishments such as corporal punishment have been found to lead to delinquency in
adolescent and subsequently violent crimes. Anikweze (1998) as cited in Aihie (2010) identified
violence as a threat to adolescents’ well-being. The adolescent may become socialized in violent
behaviour. He or she may become confused and angry. The anger may become directed towards either
parents or other children. They may become aggressive, becoming troublesome at home and at school
due to being assaulted. They may also become withdrawn, isolating themselves from others and may
underachieve, academically. Victims of domestic violence (whether children or adults) may suffer
physical injuries such as minor cuts, scratches and bruises. Others may be more serious and cause lasting
disabilities such as broken bones, internal bleeding and head trauma, among others (Aihie 2010).

22
Also, some injuries are not physical but emotional. Victims of assault often have low self-esteem,
finding it difficult to trust others. The anger and stress experienced by victims may lead to depression
and other emotional disorders sometimes leading to suicide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
2006) as cited in (Aihie 2010). Victims may also exhibit harmful health behaviour like excessive
smoking, alcohol abuse, use of drugs and engaging in risky sexual activity. An assaulted child, for
instance, may grow up not to trust other people, may go into relationships with an aggressive mode or
may become withdrawn, afraid to go into intimate relationship. This usually results in involvement in
risky sexual behaviour. Growing up in an abusive environment is what makes a person find the sight of
a suspect being beaten or burnt to death, entertaining and enjoyable. It is what makes the youth happy
and excited about being thugs for wicked politicians. Domestic violence gives rise to a violent society.

Brewster, Sen, and Cox (2013) assert that bibliotherapy is an engaging, non-threatening and accessible
tool to support assault in care homes. Sharing stories with young adults provides an opportunity for
positive coping, discovery of new information. It also improves mental health and well-being with either
imaginative literature or self-help texts. Bibliotherapy is the use of written materials (fiction, non-fiction
or poetry, typically in book form) as educational treatment.

In a study conducted by Newman (2015) on bibliotherapy as an intervention for aggressive elementary

children, the study investigated the effect of bibliotherapy as an intervention for aggressive elementary
children at a residential treatment centre in the western United States. Bibliotherapy was provided for six
children, three boys.

Physical assault behaviour is manifesting in acts of hitting, pushing, spanking and host of others.
Bibliotherapy or the use of words and literature for therapeutic purposes have been theorized and
empirically suggested to aid in emotional expression, positive coping and healing. According to
Rakshanda, Shabnum and Ahmad (2016), physical assault consists of undesirable acts such as physical
assault.

According to Raol, Jannah and Daesik (2016) bibliotherapy can contribute in the realization of their
worth and to give new meaning to their situations. It can help to accomplish adequate personality
development and interpersonal relationships. The use of literature and identifying how to live more
effectively through the characters and problems featured in A book enables young adults to increase
their insight and understanding of the themes and experiences as it relates to their own lives.

23
2.2.2 Influence of age on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes.

Physical assault decreases with age, although there is an initial increase when young people transition
from primary to secondary school (Olweus, 1993; Smith 1999; Pellegrini and Long, 2002; Salmivalli,
2002; Griffin and Gross, 2004; Pepler, 2006) as cited in Kolawole (2019). As children grow older, they
develop better social skills, which seem to protect them against assault. Peer group assault and peer
group rejection are known to manifest during the adolescent years, especially soon after puberty (Elis,
2012) as cited in Kolawole (2019). Among all the causes which have an influence for developing or
halting the propensity for crime, the most vigorous is, without contradiction, age. It is, in fact, with age
that man’s physical strength and passions develop and that their energy afterwards diminishes. This
propensity must be practically nil at both extremes of life since, on the one hand, strength and passions,
those two powerful instruments of crime, have scarcely been born, and when, on the other hand, their
energy (pretty nearly extinguished) is found weakened by reason. It is about the age of 25 years when
the propensity for crime attains its maximum.

“In all civilized lands, criminal statistics show two sad and significant facts: First that there is a marked
increase in crime at the age of twelve to fourteen, not in crimes of one, but of all kinds, and that this
increase continues for a number of years” (Hall, 2014). Using data from a variety of sources and nations,
Hall showed that crime peaked in late adolescence and early adulthood. Interestingly, like Quetelet
before him, he found that age patterns varied by sex. Hall argued that the increase in crime during
adolescence may be attributed to inability to assume any fixed position in life”. Mirroring later theories
of the age crime curve, Hall argued that adolescence is a time of flux with biological maturity being
juxtaposed with an absence of social characteristics associated with adulthood. Around this time, the
criminal justice system formally recognized that age matters not only in terms of the number and type of
offenses committed but in how perpetrators should be handled. In 1899, the first “juvenile court” opened
in Cook County, Illinois. Since the early 1800s, juvenile reformatories had existed in various states,
places where juveniles who had committed offenses would be sent, but the juvenile court represented the
development of a truly separate system for adults and juveniles. Through much of the early twentieth
century, a juvenile justice was indeed distinct from the harsher adult system. In the latter part of the
twentieth century, however, lines began to blur as juveniles were increasingly handled in the adult
system and juvenile delinquency became “recriminalized” (Singer, 1996). Interestingly, while there have
been attempts to create subsystems for particular populations (e.g., drug courts, veterans courts), no

24
“elderly” system has been put in place in the criminal justice system, despite the uniqueness of that
population.

Early adolescence in young adult is a critical period when physical strength and body size grow rapidly
with age. Although, younger ones tend to be assaulted by older age adults due to an imbalance of
physical power and vigour. According to Limo (2015), age determines whether a young adult is likely to
be assaulted or not as most victims of assault had been assaulted at young age. The increase in physical
assault may be due to puberty, environmental changes, and/or the development of social skills, which
provides the opportunity for both positive social interactions and social deception.

Although, assault among young adults tend to decline or tend to remain at high rate throughout school
years (Frisen, 2007) as cited in Kolawole (2019). Physical assault is very rampant among young adults.
When angry, they often push, shove, bite, and hit other children. They develop temper tantrums at this
age easily. Young adult age is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood characterized by great
physical, emotional and social relationship changes. It is a period of discovery and achievements in
which in young adults face many changes and they are exposed to vulnerable condition like OVC in
Care homes as well as situations of aggressive behaviour such as physical assault, both in the condition
of being victims as well as the assaulter. This corroborated the findings of (Nadine McKillop, Sarah
Brown, Richard Wortley & Stephen Smallbone, 2015) who found out that two-thirds of incidents
occurred in Care homes when another person was in close proximity, usually elsewhere in the home.
Older victims were more likely to be physically abused by someone outside their care homes and in the
later hours of the day compared to younger victims of assault. Proximity of another person (adult and/or
child) appeared to have little effect on offenders’ decisions to assault, although it had some impact on
the level of intrusion and duration of these incidents. Overall, the findings lend support to the application
of the routine activities approach for considering how contextual risk factors change as children age and
raise questions about how to best conceptualize guardianship in the context of young adult physical
assault.

Cohen and Felson (2017) proposed that for any criminal act to occur three components must align in
time and space: a vulnerable victim; a motivated offender; and the absence of a capable guardian. A key
premise of the routine activities approach is that crime occurs when opportunities arise during the course
of victims’ and offenders’ everyday routines. Other scholars like Hindelang, Kaufman, 2016) have
similarly proposed that offenders’ exposures to potential victims are shaped more generally by their

25
lifestyle factors. In the same sense, as young adult grow older and their lifestyles change, opportunity
structures alter within their social ecologies, influencing their exposure to potential offenders and
guardianship dynamics (Finkelhor and Hashima 2011). For example, younger young adult are more
often supervised within the home; ‘middle-aged’ children’s activities are often centred around school
and after school recreational activities and friendships; while older children and adolescents are given
more independence both within and outside the home and across longer time periods during the day.
Thus, it is as likely that where, when, and by whom children are sexually abused will be shaped by their
age-related routines and lifestyles. David Greenberg, Alfred Blumstein, Jacqueline Cohen, and David
Farrington) suggests that, in fact, the age distribution for all crimes is not the same, and that social
factors are likely to be useful in explaining such things as onset, frequency, duration, and desistance
from crime. While much of this debate was largely theoretical, important empirical contributions were
published by David Farrington (2016) and Darrell (2016). Farrington offered a useful addition to the
debate by showing that in order to fully understand the age–crime curve, one must separate prevalence
and incidence as well as age, period, and cohort effects. His data indicated that the age–crime curve was
still found even after removing period and cohort effects. There appears to be more controversy with
respect to whether prevalence or incidence drives the typical age crime curve illustrated in cross-
sectional data. In other words, does the decrease in arrest rates after age 24 reflect the same people
committing fewer crimes or the fact that people drop out of the offending group. Young adults younger
than twenty five were the most vulnerable to serious violent crime, regardless of how age patterns were
analyzed. Rates controlling for population show the young with the highest number of victimizations per
1,000 individuals. Considering only adolescents and adults, the average age of violent crime victims is
almost 11 years below the average age of the whole population, because of the overrepresentation of the
young among crime victims (Craig A. Perkins, 2019).

Finkelhor (2018) considered the role of environmental factors. He proposed that the usual external
inhibitors or constraints (e.g., levels of supervision, access to unsupervised children and so on) need to
be overcome before an incident of physical assault can occur (Finkelhor 2018). Smallbone (2018)
proposed that social ecosystems demarcate the routine activities of potential victims and offenders,
thereby presenting or restricting opportunity structures for assault to transpire. As situational factors are
the most proximal factors within these social ecosystems, they exert the most direct and powerful
influences on an individual’s behaviour (Marshall and Barbaree, 2010; Smallbone, 2018). Within this
context, situations may present opportunities that an already-motivated abuser may exploit, while some

26
situations may also precipitate abuse-related motivations that may otherwise not have arisen. These
frameworks may be especially important for understanding offenders’ first assault incident, where
entrenched physically-abusive motivations may not yet be formed (Smallbone, 2018). Vulnerability to
violent crime victimization varies across the age spectrum. The victimization rate increases through the
teenage years, crests at around age 20, and steadily decreases through the remaining years. This pattern,
with some exceptions, exists across all race, sex, and ethnic groups. According to Almoshaigeh (2017),
he stated that the young adult age has been described as a period of transition characterized by the fact
that the individual enters a cognitively unstructured region that result in uncertainty of behaviour. As a
result, a young adult may behave in ways that are considered unacceptable. Male are more likely to
assault their peers than females at every age. Young adults between the ages of 12 to 18 years begin to
confide less in parents and more in peers and to be more influenced by those peers for assistance in
making decisions about what behaviour is acceptable or not. There is a huge variation in age factor of
young adults from one society to another. Busari (2010) also asserted that, bad behaviours such as
physical assault slacken after the teens continue to decline with age.

2.2.3 Influence of gender on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes.

Gender according to Pollard and Morgan (2002) as cited in Okorie (2014) refers to the socially
constructed expectation for males and females’ behaviour which prescribes a division of labour and
responsibilities between males and females granting of different rights and obligation to them. Gender
also describes social and historical constructs for masculine and feminine roles, behaviours, attributes
and ideologies, which connote some notion of biological sex. Research has shown that experiences of
assault can have a negative impact on victims regardless of the gender, thus clearly identifying this as an
important area of concern for researchers. Gender is a social construct, referring to the range of
masculine and feminine roles, behaviours, activities, and traits traditionally associated with male and
female sex, which is itself determined by reproductive organs and biology. Either male or female, both
genders are taught by society what characteristics and behaviour are appropriate for their sex. Despite
changes in gender roles and attitudes toward gender over the past few decades, traditional notions of
masculinity and femininity continue to strongly shape most men and women identity, behaviours, and
emotional reactions (Witt and Wood, 2010). Gender assault reflects the idea that assault often serves to
maintain structural gender inequalities, and includes all types of assaults against men, women, children
etc. Gender assault in some way is influenced by gender relations. Gender is the most powerful predictor

27
of assault. Assaults are predominant among male gender and younger children are mostly the recipients.
While men are the perpetrator of this heinous act, they are also the major victims of physical assault.
Gender assault highlights a toxic masculinity patterned assault: a prevalent assault motivated by
aggression, revenge, competition and entitlement, etc.

Gender violence includes rape, sexual assault; intimate partner violence in heterosexual and same sex
partnerships, sexual harassment, stalking, prostitution and sex trafficking. The term "gender violence"
reflects the idea that violence often serves to maintain structural gender inequalities, and includes all
types of violence against men, women, children, adolescents, gay, transgender people and gender non-
conforming. This type of violence in some way influences or is influenced by gender relations. To
adequately address this violence, we have to address cultural issues that encourage violence as part of
masculinity. Gender is seen as the most important factor related to different levels of fear of crime, with
women consistently reporting higher levels of fear than men. Several explanations have been elaborated,
which largely focus either on the irrationally high level of female fear or (from a feminist perspective)
on the impact of differential socialization processes, with women being socialized as fearful subjects
compared to ‘fearless’ men. However, both explanations imply a rather static interpretation of the
gender–fear relation (West and Zimmerman, 2017).

The gender norm perspective attributes gender differences in reporting to specific gender norms that
influence crime reporting decisions. Using a sample of 18,627 non-intimate partners physical assaults
from the National Crime Victimization Survey (1993–2015), crime reporting models demonstrated
significantly better fit when they included the interaction between the victim’s gender and the offender’s
gender than when they included only the main effects. In the sample, (a) female victims were 21.9%
more likely to report to the police when the offender was male (vs. female) and (b) male victims were
45.8% more likely to report to the police when the offender was female (vs. male). Victims’ tendency to
report an opposite-sex offender to the police was strongest in simple assaults and absent in aggravated
assaults. We conclude that male and female victims’ reporting behaviors were most consistent with
gender norms that encourage the use of self-help violence and discourage police reporting in intra
gender assaults. Consistent with this explanation, self-help violence was negatively related to crime
reporting in assaults. Victims were more likely to use self-help violence and avoid reporting to the
police against a same-sex offender than an opposite-sex offender. Finally, the offender’s gender had a
relatively stronger influence on assault victims’ decisions to use self-help violence than on victims’

28
decisions to take no action against the offender (i.e., not reporting to the police or using self-help
violence).

Furthermore, there were some visible results for adolescents’ tendency for assault. As such, adolescent
boys were more eager to externalize antisocial behavior, school obligation, social-emotional skills, and
school achievements. This could reveal the relationship between behavior problems and crime in
adolescence period. On the contrary, parental factors, externalizing problems, cognitive process, and
educational performance were more predicted in adolescent girls (Topitzes et al. 2011).

2.3 Theoretical framework

2.3.1 Frustration-Aggression Theory

Frustration–aggression theory, more commonly known as the frustration–aggression hypothesis, ranks

among the most seminal and prolific theories in research on aggression. Research shows that frustration
always precedes aggression, and aggression is the sure consequence of frustration. However, Miller and
Sears (1941) as cited in Kolawole (2019) were of the opinion that while frustration creates a need to
respond, some form of aggression is one possible outcome. Therefore, the re-formulated hypothesis
stated that while frustration prompts a behaviour that may or may not be aggressive, any aggressive
behaviour is the result of frustration, making frustration not sufficient, but a necessary condition for
aggression.

Williams (2009) examined the impact of violent content and frustration with game-play and assessed
how this factor is related to aggressive personality (i.e., trait hostility). His study collected data from
150 male college undergraduates. The study consisted of two phases. The first phase lasted 45 minutes
and was in a large group setting. During this phase, participants were asked to complete a series of
questionnaires that assessed their video game playing habits and aggression. The second phase was a
one-on-one session with each participant. During this phase participants played video games and were
assigned to one of four conditions: video game with violent content in low/non-frustrating mode, video
game with violent content in frustrating mode, video game with nonviolent content in low/non-
frustrating mode, video game with nonviolent content in frustration mode. As part of the frustrating

29
conditions, participants were informed that their scores would be compared to other participants and that
higher performance would be rewarded with a $100 gift card. Afterwards, participants completed a
questionnaire similar to phase one. Williams (2009) found that exposure to violent content influenced
participants' aggressive responses when playing video games. He also found that frustration with
gameplay was just as impactful, if not greater, on participants' aggressive responses. Participants who
were exposed to violent content and presented frustration with game-play reported the highest scores in
trait hostility.

Another study by Shackman and Pollak (2014) tested the impact of physical maltreatment of children on
their reactive aggression. The authors tested the relationships between individual differences in social
information processing, history of physical maltreatment, and child negative affect and their aggressive
behaviours. The study collected data from 50 boys through the Madison, Wisconsin Public Schools.
Within this sample, 17 children had a history of physical maltreatment. Families attended two separate
sessions in the laboratory. The first session involved the children completing an emotional oddball task
while having their neural responses recorded via event-related potentials (ERPs). After this task, parents
and children participated in a semi-structured dyadic interaction, which involved the researcher’s
assessment of child-directed parental hostility during a 10-minute interaction. Families then returned to
the laboratory between 2 and 20 days for the second session of the experiment. The second session
asked children to participate in a provocation task, which was designed to evoke a reactive aggression
response. All families were paid $50 for their participation and were debriefed. The authors reported that
physically maltreated children displayed greater negative affect and aggressive behaviour such as assault
compared to children that were not physically maltreated. This relationship was mediated by the
children's attention to angry faces, as measured by the ERP. Their findings suggest that physical
maltreatment of children leads to child deregulation of their negative affect and aggression.

According to Zipora Shechtman (2009) in his findings on the recent shooting at Virginia Technical
University, in which a college student killed 32 peers and professors and then committed suicide. This
was an act of one very angry and lonely young man, as were other mass shootings in schools in the
United States. It is this anger, loneliness, and sense of rejection that need to be addressed in the
treatment of these children, starting at an early age. Ignoring the needs of the aggressor is typical of our
society. Paradoxically, the more prevention attempts are made the more difficult becomes the situation
for such children and youth. Prevention programs enhance awareness of the norms, rules and regulations

30
expected in a certain setting, and any deviation from them arouses antagonism and anger. Because
aggressive children demonstrate deviant behavior that does not adhere to group rules, and because they
are a threat to others, they are rejected by their peers and by adults. Indeed, adults are often quite
helpless in facing the challenges these youngsters pose. Teachers even feel unsafe in schools and often
don’t know how to cope with highly aggressive students. As a result, they punish rather than treat them.
It makes sense to punish those who inflict harm on others, who use force to achieve their goals, and who
take advantage of their power against victims. We can even rationalize the punishment by arguing that
we are protecting the weak.

Zipora (2009) continued that changing aggressive behavior is not an easy task. It requires promoting the
development of self-awareness without frightening the child. We must engage the child in an
empowering process and enhance his/her motivation to make a change. And we must offer an alternative
to aggression. All these require an environment of care, recognition, respect, and support. These are the
necessary conditions for any successful therapy, but they are insufficient conditions for treatment of
aggression. In addition, we need to apply special methods and techniques that help us capture the child’s
attention, raise the motivation to change, increase cooperation with the therapist in the change process,
and reduce self-defensiveness. Therefore, bibliotherapy is an adjunct to a therapeutic process based on
an integrative theory of treatment. Telling stories that are relevant to aggressive behavior present an
indirect treatment for the child, one that minimizes self-defensiveness. It permits children to understand
their behavior without focusing directly on themselves. Through identification with the characters in the
story, they can learn about the reasons for aggression and its consequences without having to feel
ashamed, guilty, or threatened. In the process of discussing alternative behaviors to aggression for the
character, they become aware of their own alternatives to aggression. Bibliotherapy entails the use of
literature for therapeutic purposes and it includes listening to stories and poems, watching films, and
looking at pictures. It is a playful, engaging, and fun process. In a safe climate, children eventually make
the connection to their own feelings and behavior and become ready to take charge of their lives.

A study carried out by Zipora (2009) on the impact of bibliotherapy on some group of young adults
which lasted one session. Patricia was able to disclose her suffering. She went through a cathartic
experience, after which several girls sided with her. She then was courageous enough to point to her
perpetrator, directly accusing her of bullying. At first, Stephanie aggressively resisted the accusations
and blamed Patricia for being weak, but then she revealed her own insecurities: ‘‘you bring it on

31
yourself. You have to be strong; otherwise, people will take advantage of you. I know what it means to
be in that place; I never want to go back there.’’ She then admitted that she has chosen to be on the side
of power, and that bullying others gives her that position. But following that session, she stopped
bullying Patricia and actually became her protector outside the group as well. For Stephanie, two
mechanisms were at work: she was able to connect to her real feelings and speak about them, and she
had an opportunity to hear clear and direct emotional messages from her victim, which seem to have
awakened some empathy towards her.

Poetry therapy is another method to help people deal with their emotions and assault. ‘‘It has the kind of
variety and indeterminacy, richness, and flexibility that could make it privileged ground for
experiencing with human potentialities and responses, redeeming the past, assimilating the present, and
projecting the future’’ (Mazza, 2010). In contrast to stories, poems are more ambiguous, and therefore
fewer directives, making it is easier to project different thoughts and feelings on them. A poem was read
to a group of children who had each suffered the loss of parent. One of the lines in the poem was: ‘‘As
long as I live, I will never forget and I will never forgive.’’ Some children interpreted it as anger
expressed toward God, while others understood it as anger expressed to the deceased person. Both
interpretations are, of course, correct, depending on the child’s particular experiences. Finally, pictures
tell a story without words. The more abstract or ambiguous pictures are, the less directive they are, and
hence the less restrictive to projection. Thus, not only do they allow for individual reactions, but they are
also highly effective in analyzing a child’s problem. The therapist has the same role as in any other
affective therapy; first and foremost, he or she is responsible for the therapeutic alliance and emotional
bonding created with the client (Hill and Horvath, 2015). The therapist must lead the client to positive
and corrective experiences in the therapy process. However, in bibliotherapy, the literature itself may
provide opportunities for corrective positive experiences, through the identification process with
characters in the literature. The combination of the literature and the therapist’s responses turns the
experience into a powerful one.

Aggressive young people are not motivated to give up their powerful position, often do not see their
behavior as a problem, and, even when they do recognize the problem, they cannot control themselves.
Such children cannot walk away with a book they are supposed to read, draw the expected conclusion
from the story, and take action to change their behavior. In self-help therapy, they are doomed to drop
out of the program and fail, as many do (Pardeck, 1998) as cited in Zipora (2009). To overcome these

32
difficulties, a theory of change is needed, as well as a trained therapist, one who is skilled in following
the integrative change model. Bibliotherapy is an indirect method that can be helpful in the treatment of
child and adolescent aggression. Looking at life’s circumstances from a distance may help individuals to
deal with the complexity of the situation with less defensiveness, allowing understanding, and insight to
grow. We have also seen that literature nurtures constructive thinking and is a basis for creative problem
solving (Gladding, 2005). With children, bibliotherapy is even a better match than with adults. Children,
in general, and aggressive children in particular, do not love therapy, but they do love stories, songs, and
films. In the treatment of aggression, bibliotherapy is employed within a theoretical framework based on
Prochaska’s theory of change. The principal concept underlying Prochaska’s theory is that clients
change in a six-stage process, starting from lack of awareness and ending when they have full control
over their behavior. Thus, the literature used in bibliotherapy is applied in keeping with the stage at
which children are situated at a given point of time. It is the therapist’s role to identify the stage of
change and adjust the literature and the use of helping skills to the needs of the treatment children at the
particular stage they are in.

2.3.4 Conceptual Framework

The framework for this study consists of the independent variable (bibliotherapy) and the dependent
variable (physical assault). This study seeks to assert the efficiency of bibliotherapy as remedy for
physical assault among young adults in orphanage homes, Ibadan, Nigeria. Gender and age are the two
intervening variables which may affect the outcome of treatment of the independent variables
(bibliotherapy). Behavioural equation of B.F Skinner, Stimulus Response Theory S – O – R will
manifest as a result of the interplay between Stimulus and Response. This theory will represent the
complete interaction of the variables in the study.

S………...Stimulus (Independent variable)

O………...Organism (moderating variables inherent in the organism)

R…………Response (dependent variable that is the resultant effects of independent variables.)

33
 2.8.1 Conceptual Model:

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE MODERATING DEPENDENT

VARIABLE VARIABLE

PHYSICAL ASSAULT
GENDER
BIBLIOTHERAPY  Simple Assault
 Male  Provocation such as
Using books as a form of therapy for  Female
behavioral change. insults and threats

AGE  Intimidation such as

making a fist,
Control  12-14 years of age
(early teenagers) pushing, stalking,
Non-therapeutic group
 15-18 years of age and throwing objects.
(older teenagers)  Aggravated Assault
 Brutality such as
fights, attacks,
beating, and bullying
 Punches and Injuries
such as bites, bruises,
injuries, dislocations,
34 fracture, among
many more.
S O R

Figure 1.1: A self-developed model showing the effects of bibliotherapy on physical assault among
young adults in orphanage homes in Ibadan, Nigeria.

2.4 Appraisal of the Literature Reviewed

The literature reviewed have gone a long way to assist the researcher to put the topic of investigation
which is the effect of bibliotherapy on Physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan,
Oyo state, Nigeria. Most of the literature reviewed identifies various ways through which young adults
in Care Homes engage in physical assault among one another most especially the younger ones in
Orphanage Homes. Also, Literature reviewed reveals that books can go a long way to help young adult
in regulating behavioural modification. The literature reviewed revealed that several scholars have
researched in the field of bibliotherapy as a therapeutic means to help modify behaviour of young adults
in orphanage homes. It is apparent that there is scantiness of empirical research on bibliotherapy and
physical assault because very few researches has been conducted on the effect of bibliotherapy on
physical assault among young adults in Care Homes. Also, literature reviewed revealed that physical
assault is more prevalent among the male gender compare to the female gender. In addition, male gender
is the recipients of this heinous act as assault cases among female gender are limited.

Nonetheless, it is germane to point out that none of the literature reviewed was directed on the effect of
bibliotherapy on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria
which has resulted to a gap that this literature intends to fill.

35
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.0 This chapter describes the methodology of the study and it covers the following areas: research
design, the description of the problem, sample and sampling technique, instrumentation and methods of
data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

This study adopted a pre-test, post-test, control group, quasi-experimental design with 2*2*2 factorial
matrix. The 2 in the matrix represented the treatment which comprised one experimental group and the
control group. It is labeled A1 (bibliotherapy) and A2 (control group). Male gender is represented as B 1
and B2 for female gender, while the other moderating variable, Age group of participants respectively
constitutes 12-14 (C1) and 15-18 (C2). The first group was given pre-test and was subjected to
bibliotherapy treatment and post-test measures, while the control group was given non-therapeutic
treatment but participated in the pre-test and post-test measures.

Table 3.1: 2*2*2 factorial matrixes on physical assault of young adults in orphanage homes in
Ibadan, Oyo state.

36
 Treatment Gender and Age Gender and Age

Male (B1) Female (B2)

12-14 years (C1) 12-14 years (C1)
15-18 years (C2) 15-18 years (C2)
Bibliotherapy A1 + B1 + C1 A1 + B2 + C1
(A1) A1 + B1 + C2 A1 + B2 + C2

Control (A2) A2 + B1 + C1 A2 + B2 + C1
A2 + B1 + C2 A2 + B2 + C2

3.2 Selection of Participants

The population of this study comprises young adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria who
falls between the ages of 12 to 18 years. Eleven young adults from FOMWAN Orphanage, Akobo
constituted the experimental group while nineteen young adults from Oluyole Cheshire Home, Sango,
Ibadan constituted the control group.

3.3 Sampling size and Sampling techniques

A purposive sampling technique was adopted to select participants for this study from the population.
The guardians at the orphanages assisted to select at random young orphans with history of physical
assault. Selection of FOMWAN Orphanage, Akobo Ibadan, Oyo state as the experimental group while
Oluyole Cheshire Home, Sango, Ibadan as the control group. Purposive sampling of orphans who are
between the age of 12 to 18 in each Care Homes and are capable of reading fluently and effectively. A
simple random sampling technique was adopted to select participants in each Care Homes.

Table 3.3: Sample Size.

Orphanages No of Young Adults

37
FOMWAN Orphanage, Akobo 20

Oluyole Cheshire Home, Sango 30

Total 50

Source: Preliminary investigation by the researcher as at 2021.

3.4 Inclusion Criteria

The study’s inclusion criteria were as follows:

 Participants should be a young adult who resides in selected orphanages in Oyo state,
 Participants should be willing and ready to participate in the experimental exercise without
coercion,
 Participants should be above average in intellect especially in reading and writing
comprehension,
 Participants should be ready to be an active participant during the treatment exercise and,
 Participants should be ready and willing to pour out or share their experience and feedback of the
treatment exercise.

3.5 Research Instrument

The instrument used for collection of data was a self-report measure on physical assault scale, which
was used to test the participants’ level of physical assault which was administered before and after the
treatment.

3.5.1 Description of research instrument

38
The instrument was under two headings which were synchronized into a single questionnaire.

Section A: Demographic information of participants.

Section B: Self-Report Measure on physical assault scale. The scale to use was Likert 4-point type scale
ranging from Strongly Agree =4, Agree =3, Disagree =2, and Strongly Disagree =1. The scoring was
accessed based on the total points in the scale. The number of scores determined the rate of physical
assault in Care homes in Ibadan.

3.5.2 Bibliotherapeutic Treatment Package for young people in orphanages

The use of bibliotherapy was used to expose young orphans to preferred behavior that would amend
their behavior using fiction book with story related to physical assault. The fiction book used was:
Triumph of Innocence by Oselumhense Anetor. Ibadan: Kraft Books Limited, 2015, 74-119p.

3.6 Validation and reliability of the instrument

The researcher’s supervisor and other expert from the Department of School Library Media Centre
(DEMRS) did the face validity. The reliability of the research instrument was through trial testing. Items
adopted and adapted were subjected to test-retest reliability. Cronbach Alpha Coefficient Pearson
product moment correlation was used to determine the reliability coefficient with the result of 0.908.

Cronbach’s Alpha Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items

Based on
Standardized Items
.908 .905 18

3.7 Procedure for the administration of treatment

The researcher got a letter of introduction from the Head of Department of School Library and Media
Technology, introducing the researcher to the two Care Homes selected to secure permission to carry out
the study. The study lasted for six weeks as follows:

39
Week 1: Introduction and familiarization with members of the Care Homes. The guardian helped during
the cause of the treatment exercise and was properly oriented on how the study would be carried out.

Week 2: The researcher with the help of the guardian at the Care Homes assisted to select participants
who can read proficiently and willing to participate in the study exercise.

Week 3-5: The researcher administered the treatment for the experimental group and conventional
method for the control group simultaneously.

Week 6: Post test was administered again for both experimental group and control group concurrently.

3.7.1 Experimental Group (Bibliotherapy Treatment)

The intervention section lasted for six weeks and for duration of forty-five minutes in each of the
session. There were four phases, the pre-session, pre-test, treatment and post-test. In each of the weeks,
the researcher visited the group for three days to have forty-five minutes of reading and discussion. This
treatment group was exposed to bibliotherapy treatment package confidentiality in the interactions.

3.7.2 The Focus Group Discussion (2 sessions)

The researcher had two sessions of Focus Group Discussions. Each session lasted for 30 minutes with
five young adults in FOMWAN Orphanage, Akobo, and five young adults at Oluyole Cheshire Home,
Sango, Ibadan, Oyo state.

3.8 Data Analysis:

The dependent variable is physical assault in which pre-test will be obtained. The independent variable
is the treatment (bibliotherapy), while the moderating variables are gender and age. The demographic
information of participants was analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and
percentages. The use of Analysis of Co-Variance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypothesis of the
study. The qualitative data generated from Focus Group Discussion was analysed using content
analyses.

40
 CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter presents the findings of data analysis and the discussion of findings based on the
hypotheses tested in the study. Demographic information of participants in term of age and gender were
analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage while hypotheses of study
which were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Analysis of Co-variance (ANCOVA).
The data collected on the demographic information are presented in Table 4.1 and 4.2

4.1 Demographic information of participants.

Table 4.1: Frequency distribution of Care Homes.

41
 Care Homes Frequency Percent
Oluyole Cheshire 19 63.3
Home
FOMWAN 11 36.7
Total 30 100.0
Table 4.1 revealed frequency distribution according to the names of Care Homes with high percentage
of 19(63.3%) from Oluyole Cheshire Home and FOMWAN, General Gas were 11(36.7%) respectively.
This implies that majority of young adults were from Oluyole Cheshire Home.

Table 4.1.2: Frequency distribution of respondents by treatment.

Groups Frequency percent

Control group 19 63.3
Bibliotherapy group 11 36.7
Total 30 100.0

Table 4.2 revealed frequency distribution according to treatment with high percentage of group
Bibliotherapy treatment were 19(63.3%) and control group 11(36.7) respectively. This implies that a
high percentage of control groups used for the study.

Table 4.3: Frequency distribution of Respondents by gender.

Gender Frequency percent
Male 13 43.3
Female 17 56.7
Total 30 100.0

Table 4.3 revealed frequency distribution according to gender with male (43.3%) and female (56.7%).
This implies that female has the higher percentage when considering the gender of young adults who
were present as at the time of this study.

42
Table 4.4: Frequency distribution of Respondents by Age
Age Frequency Percent
12 6 20.0
13 6 20.0
14 4 13.3
16 2 6.7
17 7 23.3
18 5 16.7
Total 30 100.0

Table 4.4 revealed frequency distribution according to age with age 17(23.3%) as the highest percentage
followed by age 12(20.0%) and age 13(20.0%) and 18 with (16.7%), age 14(13.3%) and age 16(6.7%)
with the lowest percentage.

4.2: RESEARCH HYPOTHESES ON EFFECT OF BIBLIOTHERAPY ON PHYSICAL

ASSAULT AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN CARE HOMES IN IBADAN, OYO STATE.

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: post Test score

Source Type III Sum df Mean Square F Sig. Partial Eta
of Squares Squared

Corrected Model 1121.046a 15 74.736 4.956 .002 .842

Intercept 501.645 1 501.645 33.265 .000 .704

pre_Test .558 1 .558 .037 .850 .003

Treatment 815.872 8 101.984 6.763 .001 .794

gender 5.607 1 5.607 .372 .552 .026

age .047 1 .047 .003 .956 .000

Treatment * gender 37.132 1 37.132 2.462 .139 .150

Treatment * age 29.605 2 14.803 .982 .399 .123

43
gender * age 136.923 1 136.923 9.080 .009 .393

Treatment * gender * age 2.508 1 2.508 .178 .679 .012

Error 211.121 14 15.080

Total 33673.000 30
Corrected Total 1332.167 29
a. R Squared = .842 (Adjusted R Squared = .672)

H01: There is no significant main effect of bibliotherapy treatment on physical assault among
young adults in care homes in Ibadan.

Table 4.2.1: Effect of Bibliotherapy treatment on Physical Assault

Source Type III df Mean F Sig. Partial

Sum of Square Eta
Squares Squared
Bibliotherapy 815.872 8 101.984 6.763 .001 .794

From Table 4.2.1, there is significant effect of treatment (Bibliotherapy) on physical assault among
young adults (F (2,29) = 6.763; P<0.05, partial n2 = .794. the size of effect is 79.4% which implies that
79.4% of the variation in physical assault can be attributed to bibliotherapy. Thus, hypothesis 1 is
rejected.

Table 4.3: Estimated Marginal Means for Physical Assault behavior by Bibliotherapy and control
group.

Treatment Mean Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval

44
 Lower Bound Upper Bound

Control group 34.770a 1.466 31.762 37.778

Bibliotherapy 29.488a 1.927 25.534 33.442

Table 4.3 reveals that young adults in bibliotherapy treatment group had the lowest post physical assault
mean score (29.488). The control group had a post physical assault mean score of (34.770), which is
higher than the bibliotherapy group. This result affirms that bibliotherapy is an effective tool in reducing
physical assault among young adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.

Table 4.4 post-hoc Analysis of Post Aggressive Behaviour by Bibliotherapy and Control

(I) Treatment (J) Treatment Mean Std. Sig.b 95% Confidence

Difference Error Interval for Differenceb
(I-J) Lower Upper
Bound Bound
experimental 5.282* 2.422 .038 .313 10.251
control group
group
experimental -5.282* 2.422 .038 -10.251 -.313
control group
group

Table 4.4
reveal that young adults exposed to Bibliotherapy strategy were significantly different from their
counterparts in the Control Group in their post aggressive behavior scores. This implies that

H02: There is no significant main effect of gender on physical assault among young adults in care
homes in Ibadan.

Table 4.2.2: Effect of Gender on Physical Assault

45
Source Type III df Mean F Sig. Partial
Sum of Square Eta
Squares Squared
Gender 5.607 1 5.607 .372 .552 .026

Table 4.2.2 shows that there is no significant effect of gender on physical assault of young adults in care
homes in Ibadan, Oyo state (F (2,29) =.372; P>0.05, partial n2 = .026. the size of effect is 12.6%.
Therefore, Hypothesis 2 is accepted as there is no significant difference in the mean score of young
adults in Care Homes in Ibadan based on gender.

Table 4.5: Estimated Marginal Means for Physical Assault behavior by Gender.

Gender of young adults Mean Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval

Lower Bound Upper Bound

male 30.436a 1.834 26.672 34.199

female 34.667a 1.602 31.380 37.954

Table 4.5 shows that females had higher post physical assault scores than their male counterparts.
Females had post physical assault mean score of 34.667 while the males had post physical assault mean
score of 30.436. This result was is true as the researcher observed that females in Care Homes engage in
assault most especially simple assaults during focus group discussion.

Table 4.6 Post-hoc Analysis of Physical Assault behaviour by Male and Female

46
(I) Gender of (J) Gender of 95% Confidence
young adults young adults Mean Std. Sig.a Interval for
Differenc Error Difference
e (I-J) Lower Upper
Bound Bound
male Female -4.231 2.447 .095 -9.253 .790
female Male 4.231 2.447 .095 -.790 9.253

Table 4.6 reveals that females’ level of physical assault was significantly different from males’ level of
physical assault.

H03: There is no significant main effect of age on physical assault among young adults in care
homes in Ibadan.

Table 4.2.3: Effect of Age on Physical Assault

Source Type III df Mean F Sig. Partial

Sum of Square Eta
Squares Squared
Age .047 1 .047 .003 .956 .000

Table 4.9 shows that there is no significant main effect of age on young adults’ physical assault behavior
(F (2,29) = .003; P>0.05, partial ȵ2 = .000. the size of effect is 0.0%. therefore, the null hypothesis was not
rejected because there is no significant difference in the mean post physical assault scores of young
adults based on the age. Therefore, age does not determine physical assault behaviour.

Table 4.7: Estimated Marginal Means for Physical Assault behaviour by age.

95% Confidence Interval

Age of young adults Mean Std. Error Lower Bound Upper Bound
12 27.213a 2.793 21.436 32.990

47
13 36.180a 2.718 30.557 41.802
14 35.235a 3.352 28.299 42.170
16 32.756a 4.707 23.020 42.492
17 33.776a 2.627 28.341 39.210
18 32.353a 2.988 26.171 38.535

Table 4.7 shows that age 13 had higher post physical assault scores than other ages. Age 13 had post
physical assault mean score of 36.180 while age 14 had post physical assault mean score of 35.235. Age
12 has the smallest mean score of 27.213. The result shows that young adults within the age range of 13
and 14 years has the highest post physical assault scores.

Gender of young adults * Age of young adults

Gender of age of young Mean Std. 95% Confidence Interval

young adults adults Error Lower Bound Upper Bound
12-14 YEARS (EARLY 28.959a, 1.487 25.848 32.070
b
TEENAGER)
Male
15-18 YEARS (OLDER 29.404a, 1.904 25.419 33.389
b
TEENAGER)
12-14 YEARS ( EARLY 32.072a, 1.677 28.561 35.583
b
TEENAGER )
female
15-18 YEARS (OLDER 34.614a, 2.018 30.390 38.838
b
TEENAGER)

Table 4.7 shows that age 15-18 years had higher post physical assault scores than 12-14 years.
Age 15-18 years in male had post physical assault mean score of 29.404 while in female 34.614. The
result shows that young adults within the age range of 15-18 years have the highest post physical assault
scores.

H04: There is no significant main interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment and gender on
physical assault among young adults in care homes in Ibadan.

Table 4.2.4: Effect of bibliotherapy and gender on Physical Assault

Source Type III df Mean F Sig. Partial Eta

48
 Sum of Square Squared
Squares

Bibliotherapy*Gender 37.132 1 37.132 2.462 .139 .150

Table 4.2.4 shows that there is no significant main interaction effect of bibliotherapy and gender on
young adults’ physical assault (F (2,29) = 2.462; P > 0.05, partial ȵ2 = .150. the size of effect is 15.0%. this
shows that bibliotherapy and gender when taken together had no effect on young adults’ physical assault
in Care Homes in Ibadan. Therefore, the null hypothesis will be accepted as there’s no significant
interaction effect between bibliotherapy and gender on physical assault among young adults in Care
Homes in Ibadan.

H05: There is no significant main interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment and age on physical
assault among young adults in care homes in Ibadan.

Table 4.2.5: Effect of bibliotherapy and age on Physical Assault

Source Type III Df Mean F Sig. Partial Eta

Sum of Square Squared
Squares

Bibliotherapy*Ag 29.605 2 14.803 .982 .399 .123

e

Table 4.2 shows that there is no significant main interaction effect of bibliotherapy and age on young
adults’ physical assault (F (2,29) = .982; P>0.05, partial ȵ2 = .123. the size of effect is 12.3%. this shows
that bibliotherapy and age when taken together had no effect on young adults’ physical assault in Care
Homes in Ibadan. Therefore, the null hypothesis will be accepted as there’s no significant interaction
effect between bibliotherapy and age on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan.

H06: There is no significant main interaction effect of gender and age on physical assault among
young adults in care homes in Ibadan.

49
Table 4.2.6: Effect of gender and age on Physical Assault

Source Type III df Mean F Sig. Partial Eta

Sum of Square Squared
Squares

Gender*Age 136.923 1 136.923 9.080 .009 .393

Table 4.2.6 shows that there is significant main interaction effect of gender and age on young adults’
physical assault (F (2,29) = 9.080; P<0.05, partial ȵ2 = .393. the size of effect is 39.3%. this shows that
bibliotherapy and gender when taken together had no effect on young adults’ physical assault in Care
Homes in Ibadan. Therefore, the null hypothesis will be rejected as there’s significant interaction effect
between bibliotherapy and age on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan.

H07: There is no significant main interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment, gender and age on
physical assault among young adults in care homes in Ibadan.

Table 4.2.7: Effect of bibliotherapy, gender and age on Physical Assault

Source Type III Df Mean F Sig. Partial

Sum of Square Eta
Squares Squared

Bibliotherapy*Gender*Ag 2.508 1 2.508 .178 .679 .012

e

Table 4.2.7 shows that there is no significant main interaction effect of bibliotherapy, gender and age on
young adults’ physical assault (F (2,29) = .178; P > 0.05, partial ȵ2 = .012. the size of effect is 1.2%. this
shows that bibliotherapy, gender and age when taken together had no effect on young adults’ physical
assault in Care Homes in Ibadan. Therefore, the null hypothesis will be accepted as there’s no significant
interaction effect between bibliotherapy, gender and age on physical assault among young adults in Care
Homes in Ibadan.

50
4.3 Discussion of Findings

Main effect of bibliotherapy on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan,
Oyo state, Nigeria.

The study revealed that bibliotherapy has significant effect on physical assault among young adults in
Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. This is an implication that there is significant difference in
the mean of physical assault of young adults in bibliotherapy strategy and the control group. This shows
that bibliotherapy is an appropriate therapeutic tool that can change, reduce and correct the act of
physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan. This finding confirms the position of
scholars like Rozalski (2010) who describes bibliotherapy as a projective in direct tool that employs
literature for growth of children that can be used to teach children on life’s challenges by encouraging
them to connect with book character, thereby letting readers evaluate their individual. Also, Adeyeye
and Oyewusi (2017) reported that there was modification in the behavior of adolescents in correctional
homes when exposed to bibliotherapy session in Nigeria.

According to the findings of the study, it was discovered that bibliotherapy is a tool for behavioural
modification and can help adjust behaviour that are negative among young adults. This means that with
the appropriate books being employed, behavioural modification among young adults can be corrected.
This confirms the following position that adolescents going through the pains of bereavement may
receive comfort through bibliotherapy intervention such that when affected young adults are exposed to
books written either by authors who were once bereaved or authors that address bereavement, the

51
needed emotional comfort and physical relief can be accessed through such stories (Mesa County
Library, 2017).

The study has also added to the wealth of research and has a proposition for school library media
specialists and other information specialists that the use of story books utilized in this study assist in
improvement and management of physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan. The
study has established that bibliotherapy could have a positive effect on physical assault among young
adults in Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.

Main effect of gender on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo
state, Nigeria.

The finding of this study shows that there is no significant main effect of gender on physical assault
among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state. This means that gender has no influence in
young adults’ involvement in physical assault. According to Malcom, Attard, Arenovich, Kolla,
Blackwood and Hodgind (2013) stated that physical assault is an action carried out by an individual with
the intention to damage, destroy or cause injury or harm or anxiety to others or even to oneself or the
devastation of one’s property or that of another person’. The finding of this result then corroborates the
saying of Imhonde (2014) who was of the opinion that physical assault is a defiant behaviour prominent
among young adults of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. Also,
according to Clow (2016), he asserted that a young adult’s behaviour is the result of a combination of
biological, environmental and cultural factors. Though, not new in human history, technological
advancement and other forms of progress, besides their many advantages, have also created some
distinct changes in society, such as the weakening role the family fulfils in the upbringing of its young
ones and a decline of the authority of the school and the orphanage.

Main effect of age on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state,
Nigeria.

The finding of this study revealed that there was no significant main interaction effect of age on young
adult’s physical assault. This means that irrespective of the age of young adults, it doesn’t matter that

52
he/she could be involved in behaviours that are not socially accepted. The finding of the study is against
the saying of Limo (2015), who says age determines whether a young adult is likely to be assaulted or
not as most victims of assault had been assaulted at young age. Also, the finding of this study doesn’t
agree with the saying that as children grow older, they develop better social skills, which seem to protect
them against assault. Peer group assault and peer group rejection are known to manifest during the
adolescent years, especially soon after puberty (Elis, 2012) as cited in Kolawole (2019). This study
therefore revealed that physical assault can be exercised by young adult of any age as age doesn’t
determines who can perpetrate physical assault in Care Homes. On the other hand, Adekoya and
Ogunola (2014) observed that when toddlers are angry or frustrated, they often push, shove, bite, and hit
other children and that as they moved into their preschool years; they tend to turn to verbal aggression-
yelling at other children and having temper tantrums. Therefore, the common notion that young adults
are more aggressive than other ages should be erased based on the findings of this study.

Main interaction effect of bibliotherapy and gender on physical assault among young adults in
Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria.

There is no significant interaction effect of bibliotherapy and gender on physical assault among young
adults in Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state. The finding revealed that there is no significant interaction
effect of bibliotherapy and gender. This means that young adults in Care Homes would exhibit
aggressive behaviour whether they are male or female. Gender assault reflects the idea that assault often
serves to maintain structural gender inequalities, and includes all types of assaults against men, women,
children etc. Gender assault in some way is influenced by gender relations. However, Adesola, Adebayo
and Babatunde (2016), posits that young girls engage more in verbal aggression such as insult, biting,
beating, insults etc. there were some visible results for adolescents’ tendency for assault. As such,
adolescent boys were more eager to externalize antisocial behavior, school obligation, social-emotional
skills, and school achievements. This could reveal the relationship between behavior problems and
crime in adolescence period. On the contrary, parental factors, externalizing problems, cognitive
process, and educational performance were more predicted in adolescent girls (Topitzes et al. 2011).

Main interaction effect of bibliotherapy and age on physical assault among young adults in Care
Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria.

53
There is no significant interaction effect of bibliotherapy and age on physical assault among young
adults in Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state. The study shows that there is no significant interaction effect
of bibliotherapy and age. Therefore, age of young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan does not affect their
level of physical assault but the effect of bibliotherapy could reduce the level of physical assault among
young adults. However, peer group assault and peer group rejection are known to manifest during the
adolescent years, especially soon after puberty (Elis, 2012) as cited in Kolawole (2019) which was
corroborated in this study finding as we can see that young adults between the age of 15-18 years
exercise the highest level of physical assault compare to young adults between the age of 12-14. This is
because the older young adults tend to confide less in parents and more in peers. This is interpreted to
imply that young adults in care homes would manifest physical assault irrespective of their age. Perhaps,
young adults in care homes face many changes and they are exposed to vulnerable conditions as well as
situations of physical assault, both in the condition of being the victims as well as the assaulter.

Main interaction effect of gender and age on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes
in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria.

There is significant interaction effect of gender and age on physical assault among young adults in Care
Homes in Ibadan. Oyo state. This means that gender and age have a great interaction effect on physical
assault among young adults. The finding of this study agreed with the saying of Catalano and Hawkins
(2016), who were of the opinion that young adults are subjected to intense gender socialization by
family, teachers, peers and media. The gender-role expectations of boys and girls may thus be associated
with life experiences which reinforce those expectations, contributing to the persistence of what White
(2002) has termed “gender-differentiated patterns of aggression”. Young girls make greater use of
indirect aggression strategies than young boys. According to Sharma and Sangwan (2015), boys engage
in physical aggression in the society more than girls do. In contrast, girls tend to use indirect means of
aggression. Girls thus appear to learn very quickly that assault behaviour is punished socially, while the
same behaviour in boys is praised. The relative decline of assault in girls is liken to be the result of
earlier sexual development.

Main interaction effect of bibliotherapy treatment, gender and age on physical assault among
young adults in care homes in Ibadan.

54
The study reveals that there is no significant interaction effect of bibliotherapy, gender and age on
physical assault among young adults in Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state. The result shows that the
influence of gender, age and bibliotherapy does not have significant interaction effect on physical
assault. We could say that both female and male gender and age grade of young adults did not
significantly moderate the effect of bibliotherapy on physical assault among young adults in Care
Homes in Ibadan.

This means that it is only bibliotherapy that counts in influencing physical assault of young adults, while
age and gender doesn’t predict assault in young adults. This was in line with Moulton (2012) who
emphasized that reading carefully selected stories with children offers a cost effective and quick strategy
to initiate conversation about physical assault as well as help strengthen bystander (like teachers,
guardians) to provide support for young assaulted orphans and build proactive efforts against physical
assault. The researcher concluded that bibliotherapy was effective in reducing assault among young
adults and helped them to develop coping strategies to deal with physical assault in care homes.

55
 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AN RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary

The study was carried out to determine the effect of bibliotherapy on physical assault among young
adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The study made use of both qualitative and
quantitative components. The qualitative components adopted Focus Group Discussion (FGD) approach.
This study adopted a pre-test, post-test, control group, quasi-experimental design with 2*2*2 factorial
matrix. The 2 in the matrix represented the treatment which comprised one experimental group and the
control group. It is labeled A1 (bibliotherapy) and A2 (control group). Male gender is represented as B 1
and B2 for female gender, while the other moderating variable, Age group of participants respectively
constitutes 12-14 (C1) and 15-18 (C2). The first group was given pre-test and was subjected to
bibliotherapy treatment and post-test measures, while the control group was given non-therapeutic
treatment but participated in the pre-test and post-test measures. The summary of the findings from this
study is presented thus:

I. Bibliotherapy as a good therapy strategy when rightly used is effective on physical assault
among young adults in care homes. The book employed for the study was able to modify
young adults with physical assault behavior.

56
 II. The study found out that gender doesn’t have a significant effect on physical assault behavior
of young adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.
III. The study found out that age has no significant effect on physical assault behavior of young
adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.
IV. Also, the study revealed that there is no significant interaction effect of treatment
(bibliotheapy) and gender (male and female) on physical assault behavior of young adults in
care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.
V. The study further revealed that there is no significant interaction effect of treatment
(bibliotherapy) and age on physical assault behavior of young adults in care homes in Ibadan,
Oyo state.
VI. There was a significant interaction effect of gender and age on physical assault behavior of
young adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.
VII. Findings from the study revealed that there is no significant interaction effect of treatment,
gender and age on physical assault behavior of young adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo
state.

5.2 Conclusions

Young adults are considered the future of every nation. Therefore, they play a very important role in any
society as they are seen as the prospect of such society. As important as they are, they are vulnerable
group in the society and in a way very sensitive and unique stage in the process of development. Young
adults in care homes may suffer from low level of satisfaction of their psychological needs which affects
their socialization. This does not allow them to build social skills and expertise that are required to build
normal socio interaction with their peers. Care homes with low level of residential care, most of the
orphans have many problems such as confusion, attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity; they may
also have low academic achievement and acquisition of language and social skills which are necessary
to communicate with others. Some orphanage environments are characterized by lack of ability to
properly respond to future situations, or the tendency for the environment to respond predictably to
behaviour. Therefore, young adults in care homes need interventions that could help them to integrate
socially, mentally, and emotionally into the society. The findings revealed that bibliotherapy has more
effect on behavior of young adults in care homes. Thus, reading of recommended books to has been
found a significant therapy for behavioural modification.

57
The result of the study also indicated that gender and age of young adults have significant interaction
effect on physical assault behavior because the female gender has been found not to be involved in
aggravated assault unlike the boys. While in respect to age, findings show that physical assault is more
prevalent among older young adults.

The following conclusion was drawn from the focus group interaction during the course of study with
young adults in care homes. Through bibliothrapy, the participants were able to see that they are not
alone and that several other young adults have also passed through whatever phase they are passing
through. Also, the therapeutic process made them to realize that they can also overcome like the
characters in the story book read during the treatment process.

5.3 Recommendations

The following recommendations are made:

i. Bibliotherapy plays a significant role in behavioural modification. Therefore, it has a large role
in the society at large by correcting the negative psychological ideas in the society to a positive outlook.
Therefore, bibliotherapy should be encouraged as treatment among young adults in care homes in
Ibadan, Oyo state.

ii. Both genders in care homes should be regularly exposed to reading of appropriate books that
would assist in suppressing physical assault behaviours in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state.

iii. Young adults of diverse age group in care homes should be regularly exposed to reading of
appropriate books that would assist in suppressing physical assault behaviours in care homes in Ibadan,
Oyo state.

iv. A well standard and structured library should be provided in all care homes which would go a
long way to eradicate social vices in young adults.

v. Authors and publishers should be motivated to write and publish books that address
psychological ailments etc. which will help in reforming and maintaining good conducts in the society.

58
vi. Government and concerned agencies should implement bibliotherapy as an intervention tool for
correcting behavior in care homes, Ibadan, Oyo state.

vii. More awareness about bibliotherapy should be publicized in all care homes via sensitizations,
seminars, conference proceedings etc.

5.4 Limitation of the study

It is evident that few or no researches have been carried out in the area of bibliotherapy on physical
assault among young adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. Thus, relevant literatures were
scarce and limited for availability during the course of research. Also, the study area was also restricted
to Care Homes in Ibadan, Oyo state. At the onset, participants in the treatment group do not want to
cooperate during the treatment exercise as it was not easy to get and sustain their attention for the
treatment exercise during the course of the study.

5.5 Contribution to Knowledge

This study has contributed to the body of literature in bibliotherapy use in physical assault behavior
among young adults in care homes. This study has established the fact that bibliotherapy has a
significant effect on physical assault among young adults in Care Homes. Thus, reading of relevant
books and carrying out appropriate bibliotherapy activities has a major effect on physical assault
behavior of young adults in care homes. The study has also provided empirical framework for
stakeholders in Nigeria Care Homes to understand that the use of relevant literature text can remediate
young adults who are engaged in physical assault behavior. The study revealed that there is no
significant interaction among bibliotherapy and gender in determining physical assault among young
adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state. The study has also revealed that age and gender are strong
determent factor in determining whether a young adult will be involved in physical assault behaviour.

5.6 Suggestions for further studies

This study is an experimental research which employed the use of bibliotherapy as an intervention tool
among young adults in care homes in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria, related studies are suggested in other

59
states in Nigeria especially in the aspect of bibliotherapy to further authenticate and verify knowledge in
the area of bibliotherapy.

Future researchers should endeavor to look into more moderating variables such as peer influence;
parental monitoring, etc. should be carried out.

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 APPENDIX I

DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL LIBRARY AND MEDIA TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA.

QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE EFFECT OF BILBLIOTHERAPY ON

PHYSICAL ASSAULT AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN CARE HOMES IN

IBADAN, OYO STATE, NIGERIA.

Dear Respondent,

I am a postgraduate student at The University of Ibadan who is carrying out a study on the effect of
bibliotherapy on physical assault among young adults in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria.

This research questionnaire requires you to be unbiased in your responses. The questionnaire is for
research purpose; therefore, your responses will be treated with utmost confidentiality.

Thank you

OYEYEMI, Yunus Opeyemi.

66
Researcher.

SECTION A: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION:

1. Name of Care Home: ………………………………………………

2. Gender: Male ………………… Female ……………………

3. Age: …………………

SECTION B

INSTRUCTIONS: The questionnaire is to be answered by ticking your reaction without being bias as
they best describe you. You are to tick in the space provided in the 4-point Likert type scale ranging
from Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. Please, do not that all information
provided will be treated with utmost confidentiality. Feel free to express yourself because you are
expected to be honest in answering the questions as they describe you.

Key: SA- Strongly Agree, A- Agree, D- Disagree, SD- Strongly Disagree.

SN PHYSICAL ASSAULT SCALE SA A D SD

Simple Assault
1. Most times, I insult my colleagues when angry

at them.
2. Sometimes, when annoyed by my colleague I

make death threat.

3. I sometimes speak rudely whenever someone

gets me annoyed.
4. I sometimes make deliberate threats to scare my

colleagues whenever there’s disagreement

67
 between us.
5. Most times, I deliberately make fist to scare off

my colleagues especially during argument.

6. Whenever I get angry, I sometimes push my

colleague during fight.

7. Sometimes, I go after my colleague to start a

fight when annoyed.

8. Most times, I throw objects at my colleague

when angry.

Aggravated assault scale

9. I sometimes prefer to fight in order to express my

stand or point whenever an argument breaks out.
10. Whenever I am annoyed or angry, I can’t
control the urge to hit someone.
11. In order to establish control and create fear among
my colleague, I sometimes bully them.
12. Most times, if I did not get what I want, I beat my
colleague to demand respect.
13. Sometimes, I do mistakenly injure my colleague
during a fight.
14. I had once mistakenly dislocated or break a colleague
bone during a fight.
15. I most times bite my colleagues when angry during a
fight.
16. I had once caused bruises or swollen wounds on my
colleague during a fight because of my anger.

68
 APPENDIX II

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION: Focus group discussion was conducted by the researcher by
facilitating the discussion; take notes and run a tape recorder. Demographic information of participants
like age, gender, socio-economic status, religion and family type will be collected. The researcher
introduced himself and allows each participant to do so as well. The ground rules were read out as thus:

 Everyone is encouraged to participate and listen.

 There are no right or wrong answers.
 Every person’s experience and opinions are important and respected.
 Whatever is said won’t be shared with third party, please feel comfortable sharing when sensitive
issues come up.
 The discussion will be recorded because we want to capture everything you have to say.
 No one would be identified by name in our report. Everyone remain anonymous.

The procedure followed during this study is as follows:

Session One:

 Introduction by the researcher for the purpose of gathering;

 The book was introduced and the books were given to the young adults for independent reading,
pre-test questionnaire were also administered.

Session Two

 Guided reading from the fiction book “Triumph of innocence” by Oselumhense Anetor.

Session Three

 Guided reading from the fiction book “Triumph of innocence” by Oselumhense Anetor.

Session Four

 Guided reading from the fiction book “Triumph of innocence” by Oselumhense Anetor.

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Session Five

 Guided reading from the fiction book “Triumph of innocence” by Oselumhense Anetor and
discussions and questions on the reading.

Session Six

 Wrapped up the session which included appreciation of participants and administration of

post-test questionnaires which was the same as the initially administered pre-test
questionnaires at the beginning of the sessions.

After systematic reading and getting involved in the activities that follows the reading of the storybook,
it was observed that majority of the young people in the Care homes wished they were not involved in
physical assault which resulted into lifelong emotional trauma as a result of being assaulted.

The materials used for the Focus Group Discussion included:

 Notepads and pencils

 Focus Group Script
 Tape Recorder from the mobile phone (picture session was not allowed in the Care Home)
 Clock for start on-time and end on-time.
 Refreshments to make the young adults feel comfortable and lightened up.

Focus Group Discussion

The story in the book is designed to motivate young adults and get them involved in thinking positively
about themselves, others and world around them in relevant ways. The book was centred on a story that
could help young adults to develop personal, social, peaceful, cooperative and emotional values. The
story in this book is also based on core living values.

The participants were engaged in the following activities after reading the story book.

Activity one: what experiences led you to engaging in assaulting your peers physically?

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Most of the respondents revealed that they started assault because most of their peers started assaulting
them first, so they started assault as a form of self-defence and in turn became assaultive in nature.

Activity two: Is there anything you would like to say about who you’ve assaulted?

Most of the respondents were unhappy after making their peers unhappy by assaulting them. Most of
them agreed to apologise to their peers.

Activity three: Are you ready to stop engaging in physical assault?

Most of the respondents after reading felt bad about assaulting their peers and decide that they would
stop engaging in physical assault.

Activity four: What experiences have caused you to anxious?

Most of the respondents revealed that their living experiences before their arrival at the Care Home such
as death of their parents, cruel treatments from members of family have resulted in them being
aggravated and anxious has made them unsure about life in general.

Activity five: Do you now feel less anxious about your living experiences in the Care Home?

Most of the respondents agreed that their living experiences in the Care Home were better than their
previous living experiences with cruel family members.

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