Displaced Aggression among University Students in Anambra State

Predictive Roles of Academic Stress and Childhood Traumatic Experience

Abstract

The study investigated the predictive roles of academic stress and childhood traumatic experience on displaced aggression among university students in Anambra State. A total number of Three hundred and twenty-one served as participants in the study. They consisted of 172 (53.6%) females and 149 (46.4%) males. The age of the participants ranged from 19 to 35 years with a mean age of 26.27 and a standard deviation of 3.78. Simple random sampling and accidental sampling techniques were used to select the participants and schools. Four instruments were used: Displaced Aggression Questionnaire, Educational Stress Scale, and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. The study was cross-sectional research, and correlational design was adopted, and Hierarchical Multiple Linear Regressions statistic was used to test the hypotheses and data collected. The findings showed that the study pressure of stress and childhood traumatic experiences like physical abuse, and emotional abuse predicted displaced aggression. Similarly, self expectation of stress, physical neglect and sexual abuse of childhood traumatic experience predicted displaced aggression negatively. Conversely, perceived burden and worrying about grades, despondency of stress and emotional neglect of childhood traumatic experiences did not predict displaced aggression. The study recommended that government and school management should provide well-equipped counseling centres that will take care of the student's stressful and traumatic experiences that usually push them into displaced aggression.