University students perceptions and attitudes of corruption in Nigeria
[Thesis]
[Thesis]
[Thesis]
[Thesis]
Olusola O. Karimu
Pickett, Moneque
Capella University
2014
125
Committee members: DISCH, WILLIAM B.; OJO, DAVID
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-13295-3
Ph.D.
School of Public Service Leadership
Capella University
2014
The need for innovative research to tackle the deep-seated social dysfunction engendered by corruption and inadequate leadership style in most public institutions, including the university, has become pervasive in Nigeria. Efforts to improve university management and governance have been hindered by a pervasive climate of corruption. This quantitative cross-sectional study explored Nigerian university students' perceptions of corruption. The study was based on social learning theory and social disorganization theory. The final set of participants included 2,125 university students who completed an online instrument using the attitude towards corruption scale. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, independent-group t tests, one-way analyses of variance, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. The reliability for corruption attitudes and corruption perceptions were calculated using Cronbach's alpha. Results from the analyses showed that leadership position, gender, and age were not significantly related to corruption perceptions, but religion and corruption attitudes were significantly related to corruption perceptions. Christian students had lower corruption perception scores than did Muslim students. Higher corruption attitude scores were related to higher corruption perception scores. Findings will be of interest to sociologists, psychologists, criminologists, policy makers, government officials, and educators concerned with corruption in Nigeria.
African Studies; Criminology; Social structure; Higher education
Social sciences;Education;Corruption;Criminal justice;Leadership;Nigeria;Social learning and social disorganization theories;Student leaders;University students