Predictors of self-harm behaviour of secondary school students in Osun state, Nigeria
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Date
2024
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Department of Educational Foundations and Counselling, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Abstract
The study determined the prevalence and various forms of self-harm behaviour among secondary school students in Osun State and investigated the predictive contribution of personality traits to their self-harm behaviours. It further examined the predictive contribution of childhood trauma as well as socio-demographic factors of age, parent’s education, family wealth status, place of residence and religion to the self-harm behaviours of the students. These were with a view to providing empirical evidence on the factors that could predict self-harm behaviours among secondary school students in Osun State, Nigeria. The study adopted the cross-sectional survey research design. The study population comprised all secondary school students in Osun State. A sample of 1,440 students was selected using multi-stage sampling procedure. Two Local Governments Areas (one rural, one urban) were selected in each of the three senatorial districts in Osun State using simple random sampling technique. In each Local Government Area, purposive sampling technique was used to select four secondary schools based on school ownership (two private, two public). From each secondary school, 10 students were randomly selected from each class making a total of 60 students in each school. An adapted instrument titled “Personality Traits, Childhood Trauma and Self-Harm Questionnaire (PTTSQ)” was used to collect data for the study. Data collected were analysed using frequency, percentage counts and Ordinal Logistics Regression.
The results showed that the prevalence of self-harm behaviour among secondary school students in Osun state was low as 78.3% of the secondary school students exhibited low self-harm behaviour, 21.3% exhibited moderate self-harm behaviour, and 0.4% of the students exhibited high self-harm behaviour. The results also showed that the forms of self-harm behaviours commonly exhibited by the secondary school students in Osun State were: avoiding social interactions (RSI = 0.468), suppressing difficult emotion (RSI = 0.385), negative self-talk (RSI = 0.360) and burning with lighter or match (RSI = 0.385). There was a statistically significant predictive contribution of personality traits to self-harm behaviours; at a 0.05 level of significance. Specifically, Extraversion (OR= 1.21; p = 0.000), Openness (OR= 1.11; p = 0.000) and Conscientiousness (OR= 0.95; p = 0.000) were statistically significant while Agreeableness (OR= 1.06; p= 0.467) and Neuroticism (OR= 1.02; p= 0.177) were not significant. Again, the results showed significant predictive contribution of childhood trauma to self-harm behaviours of students (OR= 1.05; p= 0.000). Furthermore, the result showed that socio-demographic factors of age (p= 0.074), parental educational attainment (p=0.667, p=0.199), family wealth status (p= 0.840), place of residence (p=0.595) and religion (p=0.474) were not found to significantly predict self-harm behaviour of students (p=0.0785).
The study concluded that there was a low prevalence of self-harm behaviour among secondary school students in Osun State. The study also concluded that personality traits and childhood trauma are factors that predicted self-harm behaviours among secondary school students. However, extraversion, openness and conscientiousness were more potent than other factors in predicting self-harm behaviour among students as socio-demographic factors were not found to significantly predict the self-harm behaviour of students.
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xiii, 157p.
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Citation
Anuoluwapo, R. B. (2024). Predictors of self-harm behaviour of secondary school students in Osun state, Nigeria Department of Educational Foundations and Counselling, Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria