PARENTAL NEGLECT AND NEIGHBOURHOOD CHARACTERISTICS AS DETERMINANT OF COHABITATION BEHAVIOR AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN ADO EKITI, EKITI STATE

Abstract

Cohabitation among university students has become a norm and order of the day and this act has its own ill effects on different aspect of their lives. This study focused on investigating parental negligence and neighbourhood characteristics as factors contributing to cohabitating behavior among students in tertiary institutions. The study was a descriptive survey research
with a total number of 1801 undergraduate students randomly drawn from 6 faculties in 4 higher
institutions in Ekiti State. Three standardized instruments were adapted: Neglectful subscale of
Parenting Style Inventory Inventory (a=.82), Assessment of Subjective Neighbourhood Quality
(a=.90) and cohabitation questionnaire (a=.88) were used as measuring instrument. The data
collected were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and T-Test. Based on the
result of the findings, it was discovered that parental negligence positively influenced
cohabitation behaviour (r =118, p<0.05), and neighborhood characteristics is as well a strong
influence on cohabitation behavior (r = .110, p<0.05) among students in higher institutions in
Ekiti State. It is recommended that family life should be strengthened and parents reawakening
to their responsibilities in order to curb cohabitation behavior and its ill effect and reduce the
influence from the environment their wards find themselves.