Emotional Abuse and Parental Neglect as Predictors of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Children in Ijebu-Ode, Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out mainly to examine the influence of emotional abuse and parental neglect on post-traumatic stress disorder among children. Survey approach of descriptive research design was adopted with the population of 200 students drawn across the study area. The research instrument comprised self-designed questionnaire which was validated and subjected to Cronbach Alpha reliability with a reliability coefficient of 0.81. Data collected from the questionnaire administration was computed and analysed using regression analysis for hypotheses one and two, hypothesis three was tested using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test hypothesis four at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Result of hypothesis one indicates that there is influence of emotional abuse (b = -.217; p < 0.05) on post-traumatic stress disorder. It was also established that parental neglect has influence (b = .312) on post-traumatic stress disorder among children. A positive relationship was found between emotional abuse (r = .000; p < 0.05), parental neglect (r = .000; p < 0.05) and post-traumatic stress disorder among children. The joint influence of emotional abuse and parental neglect is shown to be significant on the post-traumatic stress disorder (F_{(2, 198)} = 7.771; p > 0.05) among children. It was concluded that emotional abuse and parental neglect influence post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among children in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area, Ogun State. It was recommended that there is an urgent need to create community awareness about the harmful psychological effects of emotional abuse and parental neglect.