PERSONAL-SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN CALABAR EDUCATION ZONE, CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA 0 0

Abstract

Secondary school students' psychosocial adjustment is shaped not only by the social environment around them but also by personal characteristics such as their sense of coherence, locus of control, self-efficacy, and exposure to violence, yet these characteristics have rarely been examined together within a single Nigerian secondary school population. This study examined the influence of personal-social characteristics, specifically sense of coherence, locus of control, self-efficacy, and exposure to violence, on psychosocial adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria. Four null hypotheses were tested, each stating that a given personal-social characteristic does not significantly influence psychosocial adjustment. A two-stage stratified and simple random sampling procedure was used to select a sample of 919 senior secondary two (SS2) students from 34 of the 84 public secondary schools in the education zone. Data were collected using researcher-administered questionnaires that categorised each characteristic into low, moderate, and high levels, and were analysed using descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), with Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD) post hoc tests applied where ANOVA results were significant, all tested at the .05 level of significance. Results showed that sense of coherence significantly influenced psychosocial adjustment, F(2, 916) = 13.779, p < .05, with adjustment improving from low to high levels of coherence; locus of control significantly influenced adjustment, F(2, 916) = 8.633, p < .05; and self-efficacy significantly influenced adjustment, F(2, 916) = 31.826, p < .05, in each case with higher levels associated with better adjustment. In contrast, exposure to violence was inversely related to adjustment, F(2, 916) = 33.930, p < .05, with students reporting low exposure recording the highest adjustment scores and students reporting high exposure recording the lowest. The study concludes that personal-social characteristics are important determinants of psychosocial adjustment among secondary school students and recommends strengthened school counselling, supportive learning environments, and violence-prevention interventions targeted at students with low coherence, external locus of control, low self-efficacy, or high exposure to violence.