RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDERS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN POTISKUM EDUCATION ZONE, YOBE STATE – NIGERIA

The study, examined the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder on academic performance among senior secondary school Students in Potiskum Education Zone, Yobe state, Nigeria. The study was guided by six (6) objectives which include to determine the level of academic performance of senior secondary school students, level of post-traumatic stress disorder on academic performance, relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and academic performance, relationship between anxiety and academic performance, relationship between depression and academic performance and gender difference of post-traumatic stress disorder among senior secondary school students in Yobe State, Nigeria. Six corresponding research questions and six hypotheses were raised, answered and tested. Descriptive survey design of correlational type was employed and used for the study. The population of the study consist of all senior secondary school students in Yobe State with the total population of thirty six thousand six hundred and sixty seven (36,667). A sample of 7,664 were employed. The sample size was (414) students that are from the affected schools of insurgency were selected. The size is based on Research advisor (2006) which was determined using proportionate sampling were each school contribute to the sample based on its percentile representation on the population. Three (3) instruments which include; post-traumatic stress scale; anxiety stress scale and depression scale developed by Snaith et al were adopted and used to collect data from the respondents which with reliability index of 0.76, 0.79 and 0.83. Academic performance scores of students was collected using Proforma. Descriptive statistics of frequency count, percentage, mean and standard deviation was used to analyze the research questions.t- test was used to test the hypotheses I &2, PPMC was used to test hypotheses 3-5 and t-test was used to test hypothesis 6. The findings of the study reveals that the level of student academic performance is low, there is high level of post-traumatic stress disorder. There was significant relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and academic performance (r=.116, p= .018, p< .05); there was significant relationship between anxiety and academic performance (r=.166, p= .001, p< .05); there was significant relationship between depression and academic performance (r= .318, p= .000, p< .05); there is significant gender difference of post-traumatic stress disorder (t=3.084, p= .002, p< .05), there was significant relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and academic performance (r= .116, p= .018, p^ .05); Based on the finding the study, it is concluded that there is significant relationship ^between post-traumatic stress disorder and academic performance. It is recommended that schools should employ educational psychologists who should provide psychological interventions that could help take care of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder such as depression, and anxiety so as to pave way for healthy living and improved academic performance of the students.