ATTITUDE OF MOTHERS AND FEMALE SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS TOWARDS FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION IN IKA NORTH EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF DELTA STATE

Abstract

The study assessed the attitude of mothers and female secondary school students towards female genital mutilation in Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta State. Threeresearch questions were raised and three hypotheses formulated and were tested at 0.05 level of significance. This was a descriptive survey design. Two hundred sample sizewas used for the study with 100 students and 100 female teachers were randomly selected from across secondary schools in Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta State using multi-stage sampling technique. A validated instrument titled Female Genital Mutilation Attitude Survey Scale (FGMASS) adapted and modified by the researcher was used to gather information for the study. The instrument was content validated by experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient with an alpha value of 0.79. Data collected was analyzed using t-test statistics of independent sample and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The analysis yielded the following results: that there is no significant difference in the different ages of mothers and their attitude towards female genital mutilation, that there is no significant difference in the educational attainment of mothers and their attitude towards Female Genital Mutilation was rejected and that there is no significant difference between mothers and female secondary school students in their attitude towards female genital mutilation was rejected. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made among others: It is imperative that actions be taken to prevent and reduce the unacceptable practice of female genital mutilation in our society, women should be given the priviledged for proper academic coaching such as acquisition of literacy skills or pre-employment training lectures. Women should also be given the opportunity to play a vital role in female genital mutilation and as such programmmes of activities should be circulated in all the various groups in the communities in order to avoid bias, chaos and crisis.