Family psychological wealth, peer pressure, and corruption tendencies of adolescent students in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract The study investigated the relationship between family psychological wealth, peer pressure, and corruption tendencies of adolescent Senior Secondary Two (SS2) students in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State, Nigeria. The influence of gender on the corruption tendencies of these adolescent students was also investigated. The sample was made up of 814 respondents from 22 public and private secondary schools in Calabar Metropolis. A questionnaire with the following title was the tool used to gather the data: “Family Psychological Wealth, Peer Pressure and Corruption Tendencies Questionnaire” (FPWPPCTQ). This was constructed by the researchers and validated by Educational Psychologists and experts in Test, Measurement, and Evaluation. The reliability coefficient obtained by using the Cronbach reliability coefficient method was 0.76. Three hypotheses were formulated to direct the study and were tested with the aid of the Mann–Whitney U -test and Spearman’s rank correlation. The outcome revealed a significant difference between the corruption tendencies of male and female students with male students showing a greater tendency towards corruption. A significant negative relationship was obtained between family psychological wealth and corruption tendencies among adolescent SS2 students in Calabar Metropolis. Peer pressure and students’ corruption tendencies were found to be significantly and positively correlated. Family psychological wealth could, therefore, be explored to check Nigeria’s endemic corruption which persists despite the establishment of anti-corruption institutions. Non-governmental organizations should be encouraged to empower the boy child through counselling, mentorship, and educational assistance to reduce their tendency to corruption.