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International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (4.9) (2018) 32-38
International Journal of Engineering & Technology
Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET
Research paper
The development of post traumatic stress disorder among
secondary school students in borno state Nigeria:
a systematic review
Zainudin Abu Bakar
1
*, Darma Kabiru Rabiu
1
1
School of Education, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
*Corresponding author E-mail: p-zain@utm.my
Abstract
Insurgency has long been rooted in the Nigerian society. It affected deeply in the daily activities of the country. Thousands of people
including school children have been maimed, displaced, orphaned and killed in Borno and entire North Eastern Nigeria and some other
part of North Western Nigeria especially in the state of Kano because of the insurgency. The Boko Haram movement for example have
caused enormous chaos within the society especially the school children. The movement have targeted civilian populations irrespective
of gender, tribal and religious inclination among people and, the merciless attack and bombings carried out by them including abduction
and kidnapping of female students have caused destruction of the school facilities and the well-being of the society. A continuous expo-
sure to such stress created by war resulted the development various difficulties such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among school
children. A systematic review was used to critically analyzed the impact of the insurgency in the society based on several related studies.
The effect of the insurgency on the society was then highlighted which tells the story of the educational difficulties.
Keywords: War, Insurgency, Educational Difficulties, Secondary Students, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Nigeria.
1. Introduction
Armed conflict, war or insurgency affecting civilian populations
has become increasingly common toward the end of the twentieth
century [1] in certain part of the world, especially in third world
countries where there is high level of illiteracy, poor standard of
leaving among the teeming populace that made it very difficult to
cater for their basic necessities of life (food, clothing housing and
education). The corresponding chaos places victims, the children
and youth at significant risk, often exposing them to equal or
greater psychological stress and trauma as compared to adults [1].
The traumatic experiences affect their success in school. It also
cause severe physical or psychological trauma, malnutrition, dis-
ease, and decreased access to health services [2].
While physical morbidity may be similar to that in adults, chil-
dren's psychological response to trauma may be quite different
from adults' as a result of their rapidly changing developmental
levels, limited coping styles, and inability to seek services [3].
Children's manifestation of trauma-related symptoms is different
from adults and these symptoms are more likely to change from
time [4]. The majority of studies conducted in this field tried to
explore certain physical and psychological ill-health factors asso-
ciated with conflicts on Children and women because they are the
most victims.
There were plethoras of researchers conducted either in the form
of quantitative, qualitative methods, explaining, interpreting, as-
sessing, analyzing and describing the impact on war for causing
psychological or emotional trauma among children and women as
well as their psychological reaction to wartime stress, dating from
the Second World War [5, 6]. A historical survey demonstrates
that, even from the beginning of antiquity or ancient time psycho-
logical responses to mass violence have always been the source of
scientific interest [7, 8, 9, 10].
Research showed that children living in war zones are at high risk
of developing types of psychopathology, predominantly Post-
Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) [11, 12]. Another essential
point is that mass violence is the cause of severe psychological
traumatic disorders [13]. This stress and fear that came into exist-
ence on the mind of teachers, students/pupils and educational ad-
ministrators/supervisors as a result of schools attack prompted
them to develop new behaviors or to modify existing patterns of
behavior such as skipping work and school, running or weaving
through parking lots, cancelling outdoor activities, and avoiding
shopping centers as witnessed during the Beltway Sniper Attacks
[14, 15]. This paper tried to address the development of psycho-
logical trauma among secondary school children caused by the
war experiences. The finding will be derived through systematic
analysis from several of previous related studies.
2. Methodology
To gather relevant information on this study, online data bases
such as Science Direct, Taylor and Francis, Emerald, Willey, Sage
Journal, Springer link, JSTOR and Google Scholar were used in
data searching the key words of Boko Haram, insurgency, conflict,
war rebellion, and armed conflict were paired with the terms such
as school attacked, psychological trauma, emotional trauma,
psychological problems, physical problem and Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTDS).
However this study focused on the influence of Boko Haram
conflict in causing psychological trauma among Secondary School