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.