Article Sidebar
Published:
Nov 21, 2023Keywords:
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
It is our policy to publish all articles in the IJHHR as open access under the Creative Commons CC-BY license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0). This means that the author(s) retain copyright, but the article may be downloaded, distributed, and adapted for commercial or noncommercial purposes, provided appropriate attribution is provided to the original author. By submitting their article, the author(s) grant IJHHR publisher permission to publish, including displaying, storing, copying, and reusing their content. The CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license ensures that any individual can freely use the publication as long as they give proper and appropriate credit to the author(s) and cite the IJHHR publisher as the original source. Third-party materials that contain a copyright notice to prevent the copying of the material are not covered by the CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license. The author(s) must comply with any third-party copyright notices attached to the third-party content, except if the third-party content is also under the terms of the Creative Commons attribution license, or another license with an equally permissive term.
Main Article Content
Assessment of the association between adverse childhood experiences and self-esteem in a sample of teenage students in Nigeria
Osita Victor Ossai
Abstract
This study explored the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the self-esteem of teenage students in Nigeria. The study was conducted using a correlational survey design. Using a purposive sampling procedure, 30 junior secondary school students were selected from four public junior schools in Nsukka Metropolis, Enugu State, Nigeria. A researcher-structured questionnaire was used to assess whether students in four schools in the metropolis had been exposed to ACEs. A 10-item instrument‑ the Adverse Childhood Experience Questionnaire (ACE‑Q) by Felitti et al. (1998) and a self-report scale‑ Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (Rosenberg, 1965) were adopted to collect data on the students’ ACEs and self-esteem respectively. Results showed that there is a moderate negative relationship between adverse childhood experiences and students’ self-esteem (R=-.484). The coefficient of determination (.234) shows the variation in students’ self-esteem due to adverse childhood experiences. Furthermore, the results showed that gender has a low moderating effect on the association of ACEs with self-esteem among students (R=-.485). It was recommended, among others, that the government should ensure that policies are formulated to reduce the incidence of ACEs and the harms associated with ACEs when they occur. It is important that schools provide adequate counselling services to students who have low self-esteem as a result of ACEs. Teachers and school psychologists should also make a conscious effort to give adequate social and psychological support to children who are prone to low self-esteem as a result of prior exposure to ACEs.
