ATTITUDE TOWARDS LEFT-HANDEDNESS AS PERCEIVED BY SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN KOGI STATE

Abstract

It is believed that the average population of human beings all over the world has the right hands categorical in operations that involve dexterity. Despite this, a limited proportion has the left-hand as dominant. In many cultures all over the world, different causes have been attributed to left-handedness and attitude towards left-handedness. In this study, the researchers investigated the perception of secondary school students in Kogi State towards left-handedness. Stratified and simple random sampling technique was adopted to 360 respondents consisting of 100 each from co-education, males and females secondary schools. The “Attitude Towards Left-handedness Questionnaire (ATLHQ) was administered to the respondents to collect relevant data. The t-test statistics was used to test four generated null hypotheses. The findings showed that there was no significant difference between male and female respondents, while there were significant differences between the respondents based on religion, age group and type of hand in their perception of attitude towards left-handedness. Based on the findings, it was recommended that professional counsellors in Nigeria should educate the public on left-handedness, government at all tiers should enlighten the citizenry on left-handedness and the non-left-handers should not see the left-handers as a disadvantaged group of people.