Implication of Mother’s Depression on Educational Development of Internally displaced Nigerian Children

Abstract

This study examined the implication of the mother’s depression on educational development of the internally displaced children in four states in Nigeria. Correlational survey method was used to randomly sample 959 women and 706 children who were seeking refuge at IDP camps located in each of the four states participated in the study. Zung Depression Self-Rating Scale (1965) and numerical, verbal and visual reasoning tests developed by Bareet (2004) were used to measure mother’s depression and educational development of the children respectively. Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship among the variables of study. Results show that, there was a negative correlation between the age of the mothers and sex of the children; a negative relationship existed between the age of the mother and their educational background; it further revealed that positive relationships were found between the mothers’ depression and educational background of the children; sex of the children correlated negatively and significantly with the mothers’ depression and, mothers’ depression was significantly related to numerical, verbal and visual reasoning tests. The study concluded that displacement has a capacity to provoke fear, helplessness, depression or awfulness in response to the threat of injury, molestation or death and affecting the fundamental care for the children educationally by their mothers.

Key Words: Mother’s depression, educational development internally displaced, women, children, Nigeria