GENDER INFLUENCES ON SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING AMONG SOCIALLY MALADJUSTED YOUTHS IN NIGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Socially Maladjusted behaviour is perceived to be serious problem common among secondary school youths in Nigeria which ranges from truancy, aggression and low self concept to poor interpersonal relationship among others. The study investigated gender influences on the social skills training among socially maladjusted youths in Nigerian secondary schools. A 4x2x2 factorial quasi experimental design was used. The study made use of a total sample of 60 maladjusted youths selected randomly through simple and stratified random sampling techniques. A self designed instrument named social skills training was used. The subjects were assigned into one experimental group and one control group. Each group belongs to a school to avoid interference. ANCOVA was used to analyse the data generated, the result showed that social skills training was effective in the treatment of socially maladjusted behaviour of boys and girls when compared to those in control group. However, looking at the two results, social skills training was found to be much effective in correcting the socially maladjusted behaviour of girls than boys with the girls recording adjusted post-test mean score of 109.90 while boys recorded 79.03. In line with the findings of this study, it was recommended that social skills training programme should be consistently used for the female youths to help sustain the success already recorded in their training. Also, some specific socially maladjusted behaviour of male youths should be identified so as to know the aspect of social skills that will help them better.