Sex and Class of Secondary School Students in Experiencing Emotional Abuse by Teachers in Edo State, Nigeria

This study examined the influence of sex and class of secondary school students in experiencing emotional abuse. For this purpose, a survey designed was adopted in the study. A total of 1537 students, drawn through multistage proportionate sampling technique from all secondary school students in Edo state, participated in the study. The instrument, a questionnaire entitled, “Classroom Emotional Abuse Scale” was used to collect the data for this study. The results showed that male students experienced emotional abuse in the forms of terrorizing, isolating, ignoring, and verbal assaulting more than their female counterparts. The results also indicated that senior secondary school students experienced emotional abuse in the forms of dominating ( = 6.43, SD=1.93) and terrorizing ( = 6.40, SD=1.71) more than their junior secondary school counterparts in terrorizing ( =6.16, SD=1.70) and dominating ( =6.00, 1.93). The study further revealed that junior secondary school students experienced isolating ( =4.40, SD=1.60) as a form of emotional abuse more than their senior secondary school counterparts ( =4.11, SD=1.42). Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that teachers should mete equal treatment on students irrespective of their sex and class. In addition, internship programmes should be organized for pre-service teachers, while ongoing professional development programme should also be organized for in-service teachers to avoid emotionally abusive behaviour in the classroom which will eventually lead to child-centred learning environment