THE ROLE OF THE MODERN NIGERIAN FAMILY AS AN AGENT OF SOCIALIZATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE 21ST CENTURY. A CASE STUDY OF PANKSHIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF PLATEAU STATE

ABSTRACT The term “family” has been seen as a social unit that links a person to the society, and it serve as a cornerstone; a building block of society. While socialization is education in its broadest sense; it is a process by which people learn desirable attitude, belief, and valuable knowledge and skills of the society for the betterment of the society. In modern times the family and socialization like any other social institution of society has gone tremendous changes that account for the alteration of basic forms of family, withering down of rights and duties and control mechanism of the family and many others. The research sought to find out if the family’s role in socialization has been attend or withered down or has been completely lost thus accounting for certain social deviances. It was discovered that the family still plays a pivotal role in socialization process, but its role has been modified yet it is pivotal; the family needs to co-operate with other social institutions like education, religion and the likes.