EMOTIONAL REGULATION AND SELF-ESTEEM AS DETERMINANTS OF SCHOOL REFUSAL BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

The menace of out of-school children in Nigeria is a scary development that 
continues get worse every day. While focus has been placed on children denied 
access to education as a result of socio-economic hinderances, there are young 
individuals that can afford school but are psychologically handicapped from 
attending school because of inexplicable state of fear, panic and anxiety. This 
correlation study was conceived to ascertain the socio-emotional determinants of 
school refusal behaviour (SRB) among in-school adolescents in Aguata 
Education Zone, Anambra State.  Two research questions and one hypothesis 
were formulated to guide this study. The population comprised all 8351 SS1 
students enrolled in the 2023/2024 academic session in the 52 public secondary 
schools in the 6 LGAs in Aguata Education Zone. The Multistage sampling 
technique was used to select a sample of 600 students. Adapted versions of the 
Emotional Regulations Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale – Revised 
were used to collect data for the study. Data collected were analysed using PPMC 
and multiple regression. Findings revealed a significant association between 
emotional regulation, self-esteem and school refusal behaviour. it was 
recommended among others that evidence-based social-emotional learning 
programmes should be implemented in schools to help young learners acquire 
healthy coping strategies.