SEX, AGE AND PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN CALABAR EDUCATION ZONE, CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA 0 0
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.83374/jesber.vol1no2.94Keywords:
Psychosocial adjustment, Sex differences, Age differences, Secondary school students, Guidance and counselling, Calabar Education Zone, Cross River StateAbstract
Secondary school life coincides with adolescence, a developmental stage in which psychological and social adjustment difficulties can compromise students' wellbeing, learning, and long-term development, yet the personal-social determinants of this adjustment remain insufficiently investigated within Nigerian public secondary education. This study evaluated the influence of sex and age on psychosocial adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria. Three null hypotheses were tested: that the level of psychosocial adjustment among the students is not significantly high; that male and female students do not significantly differ in psychosocial adjustment; and that age does not significantly influence psychosocial adjustment. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design. Using a two-stage stratified and simple random sampling procedure, a sample of 919 senior secondary two (SS2) students was drawn from 34 of the 84 public secondary schools in a population of 9,184 students across seven Local Education Authorities. Data were collected with the Personal-Social Characteristics and Psychosocial Adjustment Scale (PSCPAS), a face-validated, four-point Likert-type instrument whose internal consistency, established through a pilot study, yielded Cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from .75 to .88. Data were analysed using population t-test, independent t-test, and one-way analysis of variance at the .05 level of significance. Results showed that students' psychosocial adjustment (M = 19.55, SD = 5.13) was significantly lower than the reference mean of 25 (t = 32.163, df = 918, p < .05); that male students (M = 21.56, SD = 4.98) recorded significantly better adjustment than female students (M = 18.97, SD = 4.73) (t = 10.806, df = 917, p < .05); and that age significantly influenced adjustment, F(2, 916) = 15.646, p < .05, with students below 15 years recording the lowest mean adjustment scores. The study concludes that secondary school students in the Zone generally exhibit poor psychosocial adjustment, and that sex and age are important correlates of this outcome. It recommends that school authorities and counsellors strengthen guidance and counselling services targeted particularly at younger and female students to improve their social and emotional integration into school life.Downloads
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