Assessing the Effects of Deviance Perception on Students’ Deviant Behaviours in Federal Universities of Southern Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of student’s perception of deviance on their deviant behaviours in Federal universities in southern Nigeria. This study used the descriptive survey as a design for the research study. The main instrument used for data collection was questionnaire. Multi-staged sampling (made up of purposive, simple random, stratified and accidental processes) was adopted in selecting the representative sample size of 1,524 students drawn from the population, out of which 723 were males and 768 were females. Data were analyzed using One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to test the hypothesis at 5% levels of significance. The findings show that students’ perception of deviance had a significant influence on students’ deviant behaviours. Conclusion was drawn that the higher the perception of deviance, the higher the level of deviant behaviour. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that efforts be made by all stakeholders to discourage those who have positive perception of deviance since the higher the perception of deviance, the higher the level of deviant behaviour they display.