Influence Of Age And Gender On Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Of Persons Exposed To Banditry In Southern Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria
Bisan Musa, Joseph Longshak Kosen, Maitala Kazzah Mangaji, Alfred Habila Daktong, Peace Satzen Azi, Mundi Patrick Supji
Keywords: Age, gender, posttraumatic stress disorder, banditry, Southern Kaduna
Abstract
This study investigated the effects of age and gender on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of persons exposed to banditry in Southern Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria. One hundred and sixty eight persons volunteered for the study and were drawn from Zangon Kataf Local Government Area (N=148) and Jema’a Local Government Area (N=20) and comprised of males (N=78) and females (N=90) of which 162 were Christians, 2 Muslims and other religion (N=4) with age range of 16 to 64 years, age mean of 17.8 and age standard deviation of 1.9. The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 was used to collect data in order to test three (3) hypotheses, namely, age will have significant effect on PTSD of persons exposed to banditry, gender will have significant effect on PTSD of persons exposed to banditry and age and gender will have significant interaction effect on PTSD of persons exposed to banditry. The test results revealed that although older participants had higher mean PTSD score than younger ones, age had no significant effect on PTSD, F(1, 164) = 1.234, p = .268, η 2 = .007 while females significantly experienced higher PTSD than males F(1, 164) = 20.822, p <.001, η 2 = .113 but age and gender had no significant interaction effect, F(1, 164) = .265, p = .608, η 2 = .002. The study concludes that age and gender do not predict PTSD of persons exposed to banditry. However, older participants experienced higher PTSD than younger participants. Consequently, the study recommends that government and non-governmental organizations at the various levels, local, state and federal should initiate PTSD prevention and treatment for persons exposed to banditry in Southern Kaduna.
Author Biography
Bisan Musa, Joseph Longshak Kosen, Maitala Kazzah Mangaji, Alfred Habila Daktong, Peace Satzen Azi, Mundi Patrick Supji
Department of General and Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Jos
Corresponding Author’s Email: kosenjoseph67@gmail.com