Emotional Abuse among Secondary School Students in Igumale Community, Benue State, Nigeria: A Cross-sectional Survey

Abstract

Abuse against children particularly emotional abuse is a serious unnoticed
public health issue requiring thoughtfulness as it negatively affects the
developmental milestones of the growing child. The study aimed to determine
the prevalence of emotional abuse and the significant difference in the
prevalence of emotionally abused students based on age, gender and parents’
level of education. A cross-sectional research design was adopted for the
study. The population of the study consisted of 800 students from two public
and four private secondary schools in Igumale community. A sample size of
300 students was selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure. Two
research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. A structured
questionnaire was used to collect data. Data collected were coded and entered
into SPSS version 22 for analysis. The research questions were answered using
frequency and percentage while chi-square statistics was used to test the null
hypothesis at a .05 level of significance. Results show that 51.0% proportion of
secondary school students experienced emotional abuse. There was no
significant association in the emotional abuse experienced by secondary school
students based on gender and age and not parents’ level of education. The
study recommends greater investments in programs to stop and report child
abuse emphatically emotional abuse.