Prevalence of psychological trauma symptoms among residence in Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Psychological trauma and its symptoms have been on increase considering the rise in ethnic, religious, insurgency, kidnapping, farmers and herders’ conflict being experiences in Jos Plateau State, Nigeria. Trauma Symptoms Checklist-40 (TSCL-40) was the instrument used, with 297 participants (184 males and 113 females) purposefully selected among populist with mean age of 25.7, while six hypotheses were tested using Chi-square. Findings of the study showed that male participants did not significantly score high on dissociation compared with females. While male participants significantly scored high on anxiety compared with female. Furthermore, male participants significantly scored high on depression compared with female. Also, female participants did not significantly score higher on sexual abuse trauma index compared with male and male significantly scored high on sleep disturbance compared with female. Finally, females did not significantly score high on sexual problems compared with males. There is need for more studies on psychological trauma symptoms in other communities affected by conflict, as well as the establishment of community clinical interventions (community counselling, psychotherapy) which could assist in the management and treatment of such traumatic symptoms.