by CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Worldwide, universities are responsible for making sure that students have adequate knowledge and skill in their curriculum of lectures, simulations supervised practice, mentoring, and hands-on experience to boost individualskill-set. Unfortunately, some aspects of the training process have unintended negative consequences on students’ physical and emotional health (Eva et al.,2015). The high societal expectations on students to perform various undefined, inconsistent, and unachievable roles in the present socio-cultural, economic, and bureaucratic contexts of the society cause heavy stress on students. Naturally, everyone needs a certain amount of pressure to perform at their best. But when pressures exceed a person’s ability to cope, the result is stress. Prolonged stress can set up distress and shut down the ability to cope with ordinary situations causing illnesses. Stress is the wear and tear our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment; it has physical and emotional effects and can create positive or negative influence on us. As a positive influence, stress can help to compel us for action. As a negative influence, it can result in feelings of distress, rejection, anger, anddepression, which in turn can lead to health problems (Behere et al., 2011).
Academic performance is the performance level of a student in a test or examination administered in a school setting on a given subject(s). Academic performance is influenced by many psychological factors, such as family, school and social factors (Amalia 2004). The family factors consist of family attitudes and beliefs towards schooling, parental expectations of academic success, parents‟ supervision and education, family structure, discipline practices and family stressor, such as poverty, homelessness and illness (Amalia, 2014). The most prominent school factors are general school climate, comprehensive curriculum plans, school- wide assessment, specific school base programmes, social skills interventions, school based services, teachers‟ pedagogical skills and teacher’s beliefs/attitude. The type of environment a student passes through in the course of his education will either facilitate or inhibit his ability performance of students. Some have tried to associate academic performance with environmental factors, health condition as a result of post-traumatic stress.
Stress is inevitable in human life, given the conflict between our needs and the realities of our environment and its relationships. Stress is common problem of every individual particularly for University students. These students are a special group of people that are enduring a critical transitory period in which they are going from adolescence to adulthood and can be one of the most
stressful times in a person’s life (Buchanan, 2012). For many undergraduate students, university life is a major transition in their lives since they are accorded thechance to decide what to do without the undue influenceof their parents. Hence, the students make variousdecisions regarding all aspects of their lives such asacademics, social life, and leisure activities. Amidst the new found freedom studentshave to struggle to meet the expectations of their parentswhich include expectations related to their academicperformance.
Stress is a key factor in the development of emotional difficulties and behavioral problems. Extreme stress often leads to serious health problems (Santrock, 2015). Beyond this, stress contributes to develop the feeling of depressions, anxiety, diabetes, asthma, ulcers and headaches. Furthermore, stress among students results Society believes that graduating from ahigh-ranking university is a passport to a good job, highsalaries, and high social status (Leppink et al., 2016). Asa result, the students are indirectly subjected to a varietyof stressors mainly linked to academic success. Attending university andembarking upon an academic career is a pleasurable andexciting experience for many people. For many students,however, the transition to university and pursuingacademic career may prove far more stressful thanexciting.
Depression has strong associations with traumatic life events, for example,failure in academic achievements, setback in relationships, loss of financialinvestments, break-up of love affairs, or the death of a loved one. The sufferer withdraws from his personal, social and occupationalactivities. Most prevalent types of depression are major depression,bipolar depression (Manic depression), seasonal affective disorders, and post partumdepression; among all common prevailing type is Major depression (Donald, 2017).
Depression, is a condition of great general interest, it is relatively simple to describe in clinical term but difficult to measure scientifically. Depression is a lowering of mood beyond the range of ups and downs encountered in normal life and sustained over time and to such a degree that the quality of life of such a person is significantly impaired (Nwankwo, 2016). Defining it scientifically is more difficult and has led to international agreement that it is present only when certain, manifestation of behaviour is exhibited. Depression is an illness that affects the body, mood and thoughts. The risk of developing depression is increasing worldwide particularly among students and adolescent.
National Institute of Mental Health (2001), showed that trauma has both a medical, and a psychiatric definition. Medically, trauma can be defined as a serious or critical bodily injury, wound or shock. Psychologically, trauma can be defined as an experience that is emotionally painful, distressful or shocking, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects. This study will adopt the National Institute of Mental Health psychological definition of trauma which states that trauma is an experience that is emotionally painful, distressful and shocking which often results in lasting mental and physical effects. Thus in the aftermath of any communal violence, or disaster the affected victims are always left with emotional pain and shock of such large damage and loss of lives. Students in the course of their everyday life are constantly faced with violent exposures.
Shalev (2018), reports that each year many students sustain injuries from violence, death of friends or family members, and various forms of child abuse, community crisis, wars, exposure to automobile accidents where many people are killed including friends and relatives. The problem student face are all indices of trauma in which students may exhibit a wide range of reactions, generally referred to as Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD), which usually comes after the disaster.
Statement of the Problem
Students who experience community violence, kidnapping, shooting and cultism may develop feelings of depression, anxiety and aggressive behaviour. As a result of this, students may resort to unwanted behaviour which may be contrary to societal norms and values. Individual students may exhibit different behaviour patterns due to personal experiences, and this may influence their academic performance.
Today, report abound on heart breaking news of students who are victims of cultism, communal violence, kidnapping, which poses insecurity of lives, where students are under perpetual fear and apprehension of plans of cult members who constantly issue threats and try to molest them. The traumatic experience may bring about poor concentration and anxiety among students. Some students become aggressive due to the rate of community violence, kidnapping, gun shooting, anxious as they cannot cope with the violence environment they find themselves.
