The influence of social support, gender and self-concept on development of post-traunatic stress disorders in chilren exposed to 2007 -2008 post election violence in Eldoret, Kenya

Abstract

When exposed to traumatic events such as violence, without proper psychological intervention and care thereafter, children like adults can develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Kenya experienced severe violence after the 2007 general elections with Eldoret Municipality being one of the hard hit areas. Both children and adults in Eldoret were exposed to a wide range of traumatic stressors. During this period of great difficulty, displaced persons, religious groups, as well as other community groupings came together in support of each other as they dealt with the adversity. This study examined the influence of social support, gender and self-concept on the development of PTSD among children exposed to the post-election violence. The study was a descriptive survey that adopted ex post facto research design. The study drew its population from the 121 Sclass eight children and 201 teachers from 8 purposively selected public schools in Eldoret Municipality. Stratified random sampling method was utilised to give a sample of 192 pupils and according to their gender as well. Further, 32teachers were purposively selected to participate in the study, giving a total sample of 224 participants. The instruments for data collection used in this study were the Impact of Event Scale Revised Version for the screening of PTSD in children, a Self-appraisal and Social Support Questionnaire for children and a Child Behaviour Checklist for teachers. Data was analysed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows Version 17. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, mode and means) and inferential statistics (ANOVA, t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient) were used for statistical analysis. All hypotheses tests were conducted at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that children exposed to post-election violence in Eldoret were still exhibiting PTSD symptoms at a prevalence of 45.50%. The study further found that social support was inadequate and it influenced development of PTSD, with those with adequate social support exhibiting lower scores of PTSD than those without adequate social support. Gender and self- concept were found not to influence development of PTSD. Consequently, the study recommended that life skills programmes and child-centred supportive therapy be enhanced in schools as well as formation of social support groups not only in schools but also in the community, in order to reduce the prevalence of PTSD on exposure to traumatic events.