CHAPTER ONE

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Attitude is frequently characterized as a proclivity to react favorably or negatively to a certain class of stimuli, such as a national or ethnic group, a custom, or an institution. Anastasia (2020) defines attitudes as having three components. These include cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects. The cognitive component refers to the person, concept, or object's belief or factual knowledge. The affective component relates to an individual's emotional reaction to or feelings for a person, concept, or object. The behavioral or action component relates to one's willingness to act on one's feelings, ideas, and knowledge. As a result, some students regard hostel residence as a means of escaping parental control (freedom) rather than focusing on their academics and getting away from other influences. The dependence on attitudes, according to Johnson (2015), is part of a fundamental psychological economics known as the 'least-effort' principle. The idea suggests that wherever feasible, use past solutions to current issues or past reactions to current situations.

The problem of students' acclimation to university life is critical. People's reactions to difficult circumstances or unfamiliar settings have been exposed to a variety of attitudinal patterns throughout history. The university atmosphere is recognized not just for academic brilliance, but also for a wide range of innovations and challenges for each student. It is not ordinary for a student to experience psychological strains and pressures when adjusting to university life, such as concern, frustration, anxiety, and conflict, to name a few. A student may struggle to deal with university life if they are not assisted.

Umaru (2021) defines adjustment as a relationship between the individual and his environment as he attempts to cope with diverse physical and psychological challenges. To be able to hold his or her own without undue influence in an atmosphere like the University of Lagos, the student must be very disciplined. Eysenck et al. (2016) describe adaptation as a series of acts aimed at surviving in a particular environment. According to Lazarus (2019), adjustment is man's effective or failed efforts to deal with life in the face of environmental demands, internal pressures, and human potentialities. However, many individuals attend university with a variety of interests and purposes. The vast silent majority of students generally attend their lectures with the goal of passing their exams with excellent scores and obtaining good certifications and degrees. The troubleshooters are a loud minority of students who support the cause of student interaction with police as a means of bringing about additional facilities for students. Such pupils are likely to block highways, ruin property, molest innocent kids, and cause a collapse in law and order. Unfortunately, the hall administrators, who should set the norm, adopt an I-don't-care attitude, since they frequently turn a blind eye to what happens in the hostels. Students go and return in the early hours of the morning with no one concerned. Some students go away from school for months without being discovered, often in the presence of non-students living in hostels alongside them (Etebom, 2021).

In female hostels, there is a concerning scenario in which non-students purchase bed space and occupy rooms in order to do business. Many influential persons who favor these females are believed to favour undergraduates. These commercial sex hawkers, some of whom may have been rejected by JAMB or the diploma program, remain on campus for the sake of pride, creating the idea that they are students. These negative sentiments contribute to truancy and absence among some students. They stay up late or go out for weeks on end. As a result, they are unable to attend lectures. During these times, their buddies assist them in marking attendance registers during lectures, completing tasks, and even taking continuous assessment exams. These are skills possessed by mercenaries. They are also difficult to detect by school officials. It's also become trendy for married guys to brag about their dates with female students. Some girls go so far as to have many lovers, even students, whom they support with money from their wealthy sugar daddy. Fights between girls fighting for the attention of a man are extremely common. As a result, some of these females have returned with incurable sexual problems and strange ailments that almost always result in death.

It is generally knowledge that ladies, unlike male pupils, have difficulty remaining together. Fights, quarrels, obscene exchanges of words, hatred, and obvious jealousy are all prevalent among dormitory girls. There are individuals that persevere in making noise, blasting music from radios, engaging in unclean behaviors, or stealing anything, including undergarments. There are also people who were not properly raised or instructed by their parents. Such delinquents frequently exhibit the aforementioned behavioral characteristics. Some students regard hostels as a way to get away from family or parental influence. They regard their undergraduate education as a chance to travel the world. As a result, they engage irresponsibly in vices such as late-night parties, indecent attire, prostitution, cult participation, and so on.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Differences in the attitudes of female students living in university dormitories and other tertiary institutions have recently sparked the interest of educational stakeholders and authorities. According to Anayo (2021), this behavioral issue is on the rise since kids come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, and the majority of them act out due to social pressure as they attempt to meet the expectations of their peer group. According to Bassey (2021), in the hostels, there are call-girls who live in various halls pretending to be students since it has become common for guys to come to campus and choose ladies pretending to be undergraduates. Non-students make a lot of money off of males. Their apartments are lavishly outfitted with every modern convenience. They drive showy automobiles and flaunt their money. They make noise with their electrical devices and the types of guests they attract. They indulge in scandalous behavior, leaving at odd hours with guys to night parties and returning in the early hours of the morning, upsetting those who are asleep.

Some students, on the other hand, desire to replicate their lifestyle because they believe they are having a good time. They participate in the malicious actions of the non-students. Students become diverted from their studies and fall behind in their academic performance. They hire others to perform assignments and prepare assessments for them in order to meet up. As a result, there is a need for some sort of orientation for new intakes who are presented with various lifestyles that are often confused upon their arrival at university. If we accept the assumption that education is a process of influencing, reinforcing, and changing people's knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, then the university, as an educational institution, can play the role of creating an environment conducive to an educated person's optimal growth and development. Upon this background, this study seeks to examine predictors of attitudinal difference and its impact on social and academic orientation of female undergraduates in University of Uyo, Akwaibom State.

1.3OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The broad objective of this study is to examine predictors of attitudinal difference and its impact on social and academic orientation of female undergraduates in University of Uyo, Akwaibom State. Other specific objectives includes:

i.          To examine whether socio-ecomic status influence attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour.

ii.        To ascertain whether peer pressure influence attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour.

iii.      To determine if cultural and religious values influence attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour.

iv.      To establish if attitudinal difference has a significant implication female undergraduate’s on social and academic orientation.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In order to do an in depth study on the attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour on social and academic orientation among undergraduate female students, the following questions have to be addressed:

i.          To examine whether socio-ecomic status influence attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour.

ii.        To ascertain whether peer pressure influence attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour.

iii.      To determine if cultural and religious values influence attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour.

iv.      To establish if attitudinal difference has a significant implication female undergraduate’s on social and academic orientation.

1.5  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research will help students to know how their attitude and hostel behaviour affect their social and academic orientation. It will help parents/guidance know how hostel behaviour affects the social and academic orientation of their children. It will help the school authority to know how attitude and hostel behaviour affect social and academic orientation of students. It will put the society in the knowing that attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour affects social and academic orientation of students.

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