CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Objectives of the Study
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Hypotheses
1.6 Basic Assumptions
1.7 Significance of the Study
1.8 Scope and Delimitation
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Conceptual Framework
2.2.1 Concept of Emotional Anxiety
2.2.2 Symptoms of Emotional Anxiety
2.2.3 Causes of Emotional Anxiety
2.2.4 Level of Emotional Anxiety
2.2.5 Concept of Coping Strategies
2.2.6 Types of Coping Strategies
2.2.7 Psychological Adjustment
2.3 Theoretical Framework
2.3.1 Freud Psychoanalytic Theory of Anxiety
2.3.2 Cognitive Appraisal Theory
2.3.3 Theories of Coping
2.3.4 Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotional development
2.4 Review of Empirical Studies
2.5 Summary
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Population of the Study
3.4 Sample and Sampling Techniques
3.5 Instrumentation
3.5.1 Validity of the Instrument
3.5.2 Pilot Study
3.5.3 Reliability
3.6 Procedure for Data Collection
3.7 Procedure for Data Analysis
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Results
4.3 summary of findings
4.4 Discussion of Findings
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Summary
5.3 Conclusion
5.4 Recommendations
5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies
5.6 Contributions to Knowledge
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
ABSTRACT
This study investigated Relationship between Emotional Anxiety, Coping Strategies and Psychological Adjustment of the Internally Displaced Persons in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study adopted correlative research design. The target population of the study was nine thousand, six hundred and thirty-five (9, 635) male and female internally displaced persons
Kaduna State Nigeria. The sample of the study was360 respondents drawn from entire
internally displaced persons. Data were collected using Emotional Anxiety Inventory (EAI)
and Coping Strategies Inventory (CSI). The data collected were processed and analyzed using
Pearson product moment correlation. All tests were done at 0.05 level of significance. The
study found that there is significant relationship exist between Emotional Anxiety, Coping
Strategies and Psychological Adjustment of the Internally Displaced Persons in Kaduna State
with the following values: Emotion focused coping strategy and Psychological Adjustment p =
0.001, r = .939, Problem focused coping strategy and Psychological Adjustment p = 0.002, r
= .940, Proactive focused coping strategy and Psychological Adjustment p = 0.011, r = .940
and Emotional Anxiety and Psychological Adjustment p = 0.012, r = .842. Based on the
results of the findings it was recommended that government should employ the services of
psychologist and counselors in the camp so as to help internally displaced Persons on how to
cope with their emotional anxiety.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
Emotional anxiety may likely have emotional implication on those who have direct
personal experience, witnessing or learning about the event that involves actual or threatened
death or injury.According to Bremmer (2014), emotional anxiety is something of an invisible
epidemic and the events underlying it are often mysterious and always unpleasant. Symptoms
of emotional anxiety matched up with a measurable loss of neurons in hippocampus, using
brain imaging trauma survivors were found to have an 8% reduction in the right hippocampal
volume which is associated with short term memory lossBremmer (2014)`.Emotional anxiety
is associated with working memory, attention, poor concentration, hyper vigilance to threat in
the environment and other cognitive defects that could adversely influence individuals’
performance on standardized tests (Rutkowski, Vasterling, Proctor &Anderson, 2013).
Finding oneself in this kind of situation requires victim to source for ways to cope in the
prevailing situation.
Coping means dealing with a situation. However, for a psychologist, coping is the
process by which a person takes some action to manage, master, tolerate or reduce
environment and internal demands that cause or might cause anxiety and what will tax the
individual inner resources (Lazarus &Folkman, 2014). Coping strategies are the techniques
people use to deal with anxiety. Effective coping requires that people have variety of
strategies and make appropriate choices about when to use them. No single strategy is bad or
good, but some strategies tend to be more effective than others. For example, some coping
strategies involve actively dealing with the anxieties, whereas others strategies are more
passive. Passive coping strategies include refusing to accept the reality of the problem, trying
to ignore the problem, avoiding the situation, engaging in distraction activities, or sleeping
more than usual.
Internal displacement is a common consequence of Nigerian inter-communal and
political violence, flooding and forced evictions (IDMC, 2013). In other words, internal
displacement of persons could be triggered by natural disasters or human-induced conflict
which leads to violent clashes. Irrespective of the cause of the displacement, the phenomenon
always leaves negative socioeconomic footprints on millions of people worldwide. A serious
source of concern however lies with internal displacement of persons arising from humaninduced
violent clashes and conflicts in recent times. Internally displaced persons (IDPs)
arising from violent clashes are victims of various kind of injustices or violence
confrontations, perpetrated against them by their own government or agents of communal
clashes, riots, terrorism, natural disasters, religious conflicts, among others (Hamzat, 2013).
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) accounted that in 1982, only1.2
million people were IDPs in 11 countries; however, by 2015, there were 20 to 25 million in
more than 40 countries, almost twice as many as refugees. At the end of 2015, there were 26
million people worldwide who had been internally displaced by conflict, general violence or
violations of human rights. This figure rose to 27.1 million at the end of 2013 and 27.5 million
at the end of 2013. (1DMC, 2013, 2014, 2015). The estimated figure at the end of 2015 was
28.8 million indicating that additional 6.5 million people were newly displaced, nearly twice
as many as the 3.5 million during 2015 (IDMC, 2013). IDPs suffer emotional problems which
are characterized by memory of fearful events and nightmare (Durosaro&Ajiboye, 2015), loss
of livelihoods, frustrations, abuses, threats of assaults etc. (Mazo, 2015). The misery of
displaced persons has in recent years become a formidable problem of global significance and
implications (Ladan, 2013). The causal factors of internally displacement of persons in
Nigeria has been linked to many unfortunate developments over unfounded arguments on
religious beliefs, under-development, poverty, unequal distribution of wealth, ethnic tensions,
unemployment, political and economic subjugation of minorities, absence of democratic
procedures, intolerance, and many other factors. The grave consequence of this has impacted
nearly every facet of national development.
Displaced persons under international law are persons or groups of persons who have
been forced or obligated to flee or to have caused to leave their homes or place of habitual
residence in particular, violations of human rights, situations of generalized violence, natural
or man- made disasters, to another place considered relatively safe either within their own
national borders (as internally displaced persons) or travel across an internationally recognized
state border as refugees (Ladan, 2016). Internally Displaced Persons are mostly victims of the
brutality of man against man, various kind of injustices or violence confrontations, perpetrated
either by their own government against them or by others.Ladan (2016) described IDPs as
persons or groups of persons who because of armed conflict, systematic violations of human
rights, internal strife, or natural or man-made disasters have been forced to flee their homes or
places of habitual residence suddenly or unexpectedly, to another location but have not
crossed an internationally recognized state border and this have been a cause of psychological
imbalance among the IDPs. With these incidents, the victims tend to try to psychologically
adjust to the situations where they find themselves.
Psychological adjustment refers to the behavioral process of balancing conflicting
needs, or needs against obstacles in the environment. Humans regularly do this, for example,
when they are stimulated by their physiological state to seek food, they eat (if possible) to
reduce their hunger and thus adjust to the hunger stimulus. Adjustment disorder occurs when
there is an inability to make a normal adjustment to some need or stress in the environment.
Adjustment is the process by which a person maintains a balance between its needs and the
circumstance that influence the satisfaction of these needs (Shaffer, 2016). Adjustment refers
to any operation whereby an organism or organ becomes more favourably related to the
environment or to the entire situation, environment and internal forces (Warren, 1934).
Adjustment refers to active creative efforts to live effectively. This requires gaining skills
through interaction with one’s world acquiring a degree of control over one’s daily life
successfully meeting life’s challenge and self-understanding and the ability to make accurate
judgment about people and place (Newman & Newman 2013). Psychologicaldisorders may be
extremely common among IDPS because is characterized by the development of emotional
and/or behavioral symptoms (such as, depression, anxiety, terrorism, communal clashes,
religious conflicts, riots, and natural disasters) in response to a specific stressor or stressors
within their environment.
It is against this background the researcher is examined the relationship between
emotional anxiety and coping strategies among internally displaced persons in Kaduna State.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The intensity of internal displacement arising from violence, conflict and its
consequences on the population over past years has turned the attention of both local and
international agencies where human activities are usually paralyzed because of involuntary
temporary relocation in Kaduna State. The IDPs are exposed to emotional anxiety, problem of
copying, absent of health or medical facilities, rapes, or sexual abuse, lack of food, and water
as well as unnatural death of families and friends which constitute high level of emotional
anxiety on the victimsBremmer (2014).
In the process of displacement, rural household abandon asset and lands and arrive at
urban area where their agriculture, business skills are of no use. As a consequence,
unemployment rate, labour, income and aggregate consumption fall considerably and IDPs are
obliged to adopt coping strategies to satisfy minimum level of emotional anxiety that
jeopardize future of the displaced individual. IDPs are not able to recover their asset base and
income has been distorted years after the episode of displacement suggesting that the negative
consequence of displacement persist with time. Violence and displacement also brings about
considerably emotional distress and mental trauma. High level of anxiety and depression
especially among those with high degree of victimization, have been observed across different
sub groups of the displaced population in Kaduna State most especially in the southern part of
the state. Therefore, emotional anxiety or distress are disturbing and may have effect on
adjustment and they even affect the individual mental health. Fear, depression, anxiety cause
emotional exhaustion, and overwhelm the ability to cope, but mayalso affect social function
andmay hinder the ability to perform, adjust or cope with different emotional anxieties.It is on
this note that the researcher investigated the Relationship between Emotional Anxiety, Coping
Strategies and Psychological Adjustment of the Internally Displaced Persons in Kaduna State,
Nigeria.
1.3 Objectives of the study
For the purpose of this study, the following objectives are stated:
1. To determine the relationship between emotion-focused coping strategy and
psychological adjustment of IDPs in Kaduna State.
2. To determine the relationship between problem-focused coping strategy and
psychological adjustment of IDPs in Kaduna State.
3. To determine the relationship between proactive coping and psychological
adjustmentof IDPs in Kaduna State
4. To determine the relationship between emotional anxiety and psychological
adjustment among IDPs in Kaduna State
5. To determine the differences in level of psychological adjustment among IDPs in
Kaduna State and their academic qualifications.
1.4 Research Questions
Based on the stated objectives, the following research questionswere raised:
1. What is the relationship between emotion-focused coping strategy and psychological
adjustment of IDPs in Kaduna State.
2. What is the relationship between problem-focused coping strategy and psychological
adjustment of IDPs in Kaduna State.
3. What is the relationship between proactive coping and psychological adjustment of
IDPs in Kaduna State
4. What is the relationship between emotional anxiety and psychological adjustment
among IDPs in Kaduna State
5. What is the differences in level of psychological adjustment among IDPs in Kaduna
State and their academic qualifications.
1.5 Hypotheses
This study has the following hypotheses:
1. There is no significant relationship between emotion-focused coping strategy and
psychological adjustment of IDPs in Kaduna State.
2. There is no significant relationship between problem-focused coping strategy and
psychological adjustment of IDPs in Kaduna State.
3. There is no significant relationship between proactive coping and psychological
adjustment of IDPs in Kaduna State
4. There is no significant relationship between emotional anxiety and psychological
adjustment among IDPs in Kaduna State
5. There is no significant differences in level of psychological adjustment among IDPs
in Kaduna State and their academic qualifications.
1.6 Basic Assumptions
The study is based on the following basic assumptions: it is assumed that
1. Emotion-focused coping strategy has relationship with psychological adjustment of
IDPs in Kaduna State.
2. Problem-focused coping strategy has relationship with psychological adjustment of
IDPs in Kaduna State.
3. Proactive coping has relationship with psychological adjustment of IDPs in Kaduna
State
4. Emotional anxiety has relationship with psychological adjustment among IDPs in
Kaduna State
5. There are differences in the level of psychological adjustment among IDPs in Kaduna
State and their academic qualifications.
1.7 Significance of the study
This study is of significant importance in enhancing and improving quality of
education in Kaduna State.Specifically, the study would be of great significance to policy
makers, school administrators, school psychologists, counsellors, parents, Traditional rulers,
student and all stakeholder of Kaduna State Government as they strive to raise the standard of
education in the country.To policy makers and school administrators, the study will provide
them with empirically based data that would assist them make decisions so as to enhance the
living conditions of the internally displaced persons in Kaduna state.
To educational psychologists and counsellors, the result of this study will provide them
with information about the state of mind of the IDPs with a view to devising means of helping
them adjust to life. Traditional rulers, parents and members of the public and other
stakeholders would benefit from this study in the sense that it opens up the situation of the
IDPs thereby calling for urgent intervention to their lives.
To achieve the above significance of the study, the finding of this research will be
published in journals, columns in newspapers and other academic periodicals. The
organization of workshop and seminars will equally broaden the coverage of benefiting the
society standard, to gain from this research.
However, conducting a research of this nature has always been to ultimately determine
the extent to which society is being able to socially adjust to new standard and value that has
impacted on the quality of individuals’ life. It is in the light of this the researcher wishes to
state strongly that the findings will be of immense importance and value to psychologists and
counsellor as it will provide a blueprint for government policies toward developing the needed
coping strategies for emotional anxiety,psychological adjustment and socially maladjusted
individuals among the IDPs in Kaduna State.
1.8 Scope and Delimitation of the Study
The scope of the study is delimited to Emotional Anxiety, Coping Strategies and
Psychological Adjustment of the Internally Displaced Persons in Kaduna State, Nigeria.The
study was delimited to the thirteen northern states in Nigeria. The study did not include other
states in Nigeria. Male and females IDPs were the target populationof the study. The area
covered by the study is only IDPs in Kaduna StateIDPs.
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