Parenting Styles as Correlates of Students’ Attitude towards Examination Malpractices in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State: Implications for Counselling (Published)
Parenting styles refers to practices adopted by parents in rearing their children. A good parenting style is needed to develop in a child interpersonal relationship, capacity to take initiatives, self-reliance, motivation and to conform to societal acceptable code of conduct. Bad parenting style is counterproductive and may as well get children involved in antisocial behaviours including examination malpractices. This work is a correlational study intended to determine the relationship between parenting styles and students’ attitude towards examination malpractices. Three research questions and three hypotheses were designed to guide the study. The instruments for data collection were Students’ Attitude to Examination Malpractices Scale and Parenting Style Scale. These instruments were vetted by three experts in Educational Psychology. The reliability coefficient of Attitude to Examination Malpractices Scale measured through test-retest method and Pearson product moment correlation technique was 0.86. The reliability indices of sections of Parenting Style Scale established through Cronbach Alpha technique were 0.68, 0.81, 0.73 and 0.84 for sections A, B, C and D respectively. It was found that though, majority of the students showed negative attitude towards examination malpractices, a sizeable percentage of them showed positive attitude towards the malaise. Authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and neglectful parenting styles had a significant joint relationship with students’ attitude towards examination malpractices. Authoritative, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles each had individual negative relationship with students’ attitude towards examination malpractices while neglectful parenting style had a positive relationship with students’ attitude towards examination malpractices. Based on these findings, it is imperative for the counsellors to assist prospective couples through premarital counselling or marital counselling to adopt good parenting styles especially authoritative parenting style in nurturing their children. Appreciable number of counsellors should be employed by the government of Rivers State and sent to secondary schools to help maladjusted students acquire good value re-orientation that will enable them distinguish what is good from what is bad with a view to avoiding negative tendencies including examination malpractices.
Keywords: Authoritarian, Authoritative, Corruption, Examination, Fraud, Test, antisocial behaviour, cheating, malpractices, neglectful parenting styles, permissive
Forensic Accounting As a Veritable Tool for Efficient Management of State Owned Public Sectors in Ebonyi State: The Accountants Perspective (Published)
The study was carried out to find out the uses of forensic accounting as well as the basic skills required for the use of forensic accounting in state owned public sectors in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. Two research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study comprised of One hundred and fifty six Accountants working in the state ministries in Abakaliki urban. A sample size of sixty two (62) accountants was used. Out of sixty two (62) copies of the questionnaire distributed only sixty copies (60) were returned. The study found out the uses as calculation of economic damage, determining the level of bankruptcy or insolvency for an organization, act as a guide in re-organization of organizational financial activities, used to check on security fraud, used for valuation of a business, etc. The basic skills required for the use of forensic accounting in public sectors include: knowledge of preparing financial statements, ability to compute key financial ratios, being informed on the types of audit evidence etc. The researchers conclude that forensic accounting is essential in every organization especially public sectors and recommended that tertiary institutions offering accountancy and accounting education should ensure that forensic accounting is offered not just in the post graduate level but equally at the under graduate level and to curb the incessant cases of corruption in public sectors in Nigeria, forensic accounting must be professionally practiced in all organizations.
Keywords: Accounting, Fraud, and public sector, forensic