Terrorism Inclination and Self-Esteem Level of Secondary School Students in Nigeria
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Incidences of terrorism and proclivity or penchant towards such
acts has necessitated the need to examine if secondary school students are
inclined towards terrorism, the gender that is most inclined to terrorist
tendencies and whether self-esteem issues contribute to terrorism
inclination. This is to assist in initiating general and gender specific
educational campaign among secondary school students aimed at curbing
terrorism in Nigeria. This study aimed to identify the specific gender
which is more predisposed to terrorism and to manifesting self-esteem
issues among secondary school students. In order to investigate gender
differences in terrorism inclination and self-esteem issues among
secondary school students in Lagos, 590 students from 8 secondary
schools in Lagos State were administered the 10 item Terrorism
Inclination Scale by Agbo and Ezeuduji (2010) and the Rosenberg‘s selfesteem
scale. The participants consisted of 249 males and 341 females
aged 9 to 23 years (M = 14.44, SD = 1.58) in Junior and Senior Secondary
Schools. The result of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)
used to analyse gender differences in terrorism inclination and self-esteem
issues among secondary school students in Nigeria showed a significantinfluence of gender in terrorism inclination among secondary school
students, F (2, 587) = 4.876, p<= 0.01; Wilks‘ Lambda = 0.984, partial η2
=0.02 but there was no gender difference in self-esteem level of secondary
school students. ale secondary school students reported both higher
terrorism inclination (X = 24.56, SD = 8.11) and higher level of selfesteem
(X = 21.05, SD = 3.36) than female secondary school students.
This study has clearly shown the existence of terrorism proclivity among
secondary school students irrespective of their self-esteem level. The need
for educators to focus on secondary school students in order to dissuade
them from sympathising with terrorists so as to curb the spate of terrorism
in Nigeria was discussed.
Keywords
BF Psychology