Influence of Gender and Age on Behavioural Problems and Experience of Child Abuse among Secondary School Students (Published)
This study was carried out to examine the influence of gender and age on behavioural problems (aggressive behaviour and truancy) and experience of child abuse among secondary school students. A descriptive research design of survey type was adopted for the study. The population for this study comprised all public secondary school students in Ekiti State. The sample consisted of 200 students drawn from five secondary schools through simple random sampling. A self-designed questionnaire tagged “Child Abuse and Behavioural Problems Questionnaire” (CABPQ) was used to collect data. Expert judgements were used to ensure face and content validity. Test-retest method was used to determine the reliability and a reliability coefficient of 0.70 was obtained. Data collected were analysed by using t-test. The results showed that gender and age do not significantly influence aggressive behaviour and truancy; and also do not influence experience of child abuse among students. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others, that all education stakeholders, particularly the counsellors, should plan intervention programmes to help students who engage in aggressive behaviour and truancy; and students who experience child abuse. The focus of these programmes should be on students of both sexes and students of all ages in the school.
Keywords: Aggression, Child abuse, Truancy, schools
PHYSICAL AND VERBAL AGGRESSION AMONG ADOLESCENT SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN RIVERS STATE OF NIGERIA (Published)
This study was conducted to ascertain the prevalence, gender and level of schooling difference in adolescent secondary school students’ physical and verbal aggression. The study was conducted in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study, while stratified random sampling technique was used to select 360 adolescent students from three secondary schools to constitute sample for the study. The respondents were selected on the basis of gender and level of schooling. The physical and verbal aggression segments of Buss-Perry Scale were adopted for the study. Six research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. The results were as follows: 20.8% of the secondary school students were physically aggressive, while the prevalence of verbal aggression among the students was 48.3%. Prevalence of physical aggression and verbal aggression were higher among males than females. Prevalence of physical aggression was higher among JSS students (28.3%) than among the SSS students (13.3%), while prevalence of verbal aggression was higher among SSS students (56.7%), than among JSS students (40%). There was significant difference between male and female students physical aggression. There was significant difference between JSS and SSS students physical aggression. Among the recommendations was that Anti-Aggression Club should be established in schools, to monitor, discourage and report aggressive behaviours to school authorities
Keywords: Adolescent, Aggression, Physical Aggression, Verbal Aggression