Emotional abuse of secondary school students by teachers in Edo State, Nigeria

Research on child abuse has been plagued with much attention placed on physical and sexual abuse. Emotional abuse has been largely ignored. In Nigeria, research on emotional abuse of students by teachers is lean. At present, very little is known about emotional abuse of school children in Nigerian schools by their teachers. The instrument used for the study is called Classroom Emotional Abuse Scale. It was an adapted version of the McEachern, Aluede and Kenny's (2003) Classroom Behavior Scale. From the study, it can be concluded that seven forms of emotional abuse (terrorising, dominating, discriminating, rejecting, verbal assaulting, ignoring and degrading) exist in secondary schools in Edo State, Nigeria. Since it has been found that emotional abuse exists in Edo State secondary schools, and considering the fact that emotional abuse can cause school failure, juvenile delinquency, depression, anxiety, fear, low social competence, emotional numbing and detachment in the lives of victims, there is the need to find a lasting solution.