Traumatising factors influencing interpersonal relationships of university students

Abstract

This paper explores depression quality of life and emotional abuse as traumatising factors influencing interpersonal relationships of university students in Nigeria. A descriptive research design of correlation type was employed to analyse data collected from 200 sampled participants out of which 115 (57.5%) were male and 85 (42.5%) were female. The results established that depression (χ2 = 6.069: p < .048) had a significant association with less satisfying interpersonal relationships. However, quality of life (χ2 = 383: p > .536) and less emotional abuse (χ2 = 124: p < .725) were not significantly associated with poor interpersonal relationships of the participants. In the final correlation analysis, quality of life (r =.309, p < 0.001) and emotional abuse (r =.197, p < 0.001) significantly correlated with interpersonal relationships, while depression (r = −.393, p < 0.001) had an inverse relationship. The study suggested that there was a need to address factors affecting university students’ interpersonal relationships.

Keywords:

• depression
• emotional abuse
• interpersonal relationship
• quality of life

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Past traumatising experience such as sexual abuse, physical, mental and emotional violence poor academic performance among others and its associated factors could affect the quality of interpersonal relationships of university students. Only very few studies exist on issues factors that could affect the quality of interpersonal relationships of the university students, which is while this study employed a quantitative design approach to examine the predictive influence of depression which varies at three level of mild, moderate and severe, levels of quality of live and emotional abuse on quality of interpersonal relationships. The author surveyed 200 university students who in the last six months might have had one form of trauma-related experience. The outcome of the study revealed that high prevalence of depression was associated with poor quality of interpersonal relationships. While good quality of life and absence of emotional abuse play a significant role on the interpersonal relationships of undergraduate students. Recommendations were based on the findings which include effective students support programmes.

1. Introduction

It is a well-known fact that no person on earth can completely live in isolation without interacting with other in his immediate environment (Biordi & Nicholson, 2013). This interaction is commonly characterised by interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships within the environment in which the individual lives (Brenner et al., 2013). The nature of this environment, to a large extent, could be determined by the intensiveness of interaction and interrelationship ability of individuals; thus, the greater the individual’s interpersonal interaction, the better adjusted they are and the more possibility they have of achieving success in their endeavours (Brenner et al., 2013). In the context of this study, students at any level of education need to interact with other students to develop self-identity, a sense of belonging, higher institution adaptation and increased academic or career success chances. University students in particular, being majorly within the stage of middle or late adolescence, are preoccupied with the social recognition and sense of belonging which may be attained through harmonious relationships with peers (Lee, 2011). To maintain a healthy and satisfying social identity during the university education, interpersonal relationship ability is necessary since higher institution is a bridge between social, family, and work life (Kim et al., 2012).

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the participants

Factors		Frequency	Percentage
Gender	Male	115	57.5%
	Female	85	42.5%
Age	15–18 years	45	22.5%
	19–22 years	93	46.5%
	23–26 years	53	26.5%
	27 and above	9	4.5%
Religion	Christians	131	65.5%
	Muslims	67	33.5%
	Missing	2	1%

Table 2. Showing the cross tabulation and chi square results

Traumatising factors			Interpersonal relationship		χ2	Df	Sig
		Overall	Poor	Good
Depression	Mild	48 (24.0%)	2 (4.2%)	46 (95.8%)	6.069^a	2	p < .048
	Moderate	107 (53.5%)	11 (10.3%)	96 (89.7%)
	Severe	45 (22.5%)	9 (20.0%)	36 (80.0%)
Emotionally abused	Not abused	194 (97.0%)	22 (11.3%)	172 (88.7%)	.383^a	1	p > .536
	Abuse	6 (3.0%)	0 (0.0%)	3 (100.0%)
Quality of life	Poor	1 (.5%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (100.0%)	.124^a	1	p > .725
	Good	199 (99.5)	22 (11.1%)	177 (88.9%)

Table 3. Summary of regression showing the relative contribution of each of the traumatising factors to the prediction of interpersonal relationship

Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	27.600	4.397		6.277	.000
	Depression	−.289	−.045	−.390	6.392	.000
	Quality of life	.156	.035	.275	4.484	.000
	Emotional abuse	.235	.08	.172	2.802	.006

Unfortunately, many university students demonstrate a lack of or have low positive interpersonal relationship ability, resulting in acute stress, emotional abuse, low self-esteem, depression, nervousness, frustration, academic exhaustion, isolation, suicidal thoughts, and deepened poor quality of life (Park, 2009; Song, 2008). These issues are usually occasioned by some traumatic experiences, which make adapting to university lifestyle difficult and result in high rate of failure, dropout, unemployment, risky behaviours, shattered destiny and suicidal mission (Kim, 2009; Kim et al., 2012). Traumatising experiences usually have a ripple effect on the psychological, biological, behavioural/social, academic, and general well-being of victims (Yoon et al., 2011). Similarly, psychological distress following traumatic events is widely understood in terms of negative mental health outcomes, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (American Psychological Association [APA], 2016). However, the experience of trauma is also associated with other forms of psychosocial dysfunction including anxiety, depression, substance abuse, self-esteem and economic instability leading to poor quality of life and strained interpersonal relationships (Foster, 2014).

Traumatising events are anything that threatens the physical well-being of an individual whether experienced directly, witnessed occurring to another individual, or hearing about happening to a close friend or relative (APA, 2016). Such events could be sudden bereavement, sexual abuse, violence, natural or man-made disaster (fire outbreak or flood), physical abuse or assault, molestation, serious accidents, rape, torture, combat, witnessing a death, emotional abuse, and health problems, among other events DSM-5 (APA, 2013). To Rothschild (2011), trauma is the response to an experience that threatens one’s life or physical integrity. These events usually make it difficult for most victims to interact with others in a socially acceptable manner. This is worsened among higher institution students who may be experiencing multiple traumatic stressors due to the challenges that characterise their age group, academic demands, and variation in trauma reaction (Schilling et al., 2007).

Traumatising experience has been found to have cumulative detrimental effects on interpersonal relationships due to the fact that interpersonal relationship are central to general well-being, human functioning, productivity, and life satisfaction (Foster, 2014). Interpersonal relationship is a mutual interaction between a people and another or within a group of people that share ideas, expectations, moment of joy, happiness, success, achievements, failures, burdens, or people that alert one another on issues, create awareness within the member of the group (Huang et al., 2016). High-quality interpersonal relationships have a healing effect on traumatic experience; this is why optimal physical and psychological human functioning depends on quality relationships (Carvallo & Gabriel, 2006). Schutz (1960) alluded to interpersonal relationships as being a psychological need, involves three different levels: affection, inclusion, and control. He refers to affection as the desire for expressing emotions and being loved by others; inclusion as the hope of an individual of being accepted and recognised; while control was regarded as the desire of an individual to influence people, things, and objectives in certain aspects. Interpersonal relationships in real life emphasise real interaction and shared activities among friends, peers, parents, and teachers (Grieve et al., 2013). Therefore, the current study examined how depression, quality of life and emotional abuse as traumatising factors shape the interpersonal relationships of university students.

2. Depression

Depression, a multifactorial disorder, plays a negative role in interpersonal relationships because it is the most common psychological disorder in emerging adults (Hankin & Abela, 2005). Moreover, A. K. Ibrahim et al. (2013) established that the depression rate is higher in university students than in the general population. Regrettably, past studies reported the prevalence level of depression among university students was high and varies across different cultures globally (A. K. Ibrahim et al., 2013). Specifically, in some Africa countries such as Uganda where 253 medical students were sampled and high prevalence of mental health due to depression was found to be high (Ovuga et al., 2006). In Ghana, Asante and Andoh-Arthur (2015) who sampled 200 medical students reported 23.3% of the participants had probable depression. Othieno et al. (2015) found that among Kenyan university students, 35.7% moderate prevalence rate of depression, whilst 5.6% severe depressive symptom were reported. In Egypt, a similar high level of depression was recorded by A. K. Ibrahim et al. (2012) with 37% of the students scoring above the threshold for moderate depression. In Nigeria, Adewuya et al. (2006), Peltzer et al. (2013) used Centre for Epidemiological Studies Short Depression Scale (CES-D10) to access the prevalence of depression among undergraduate students, whilst 32.2% rate was found. Giving this prevalence rate, stressful and traumatic experience as a result of addictive behaviours and posttraumatic stressors such as higher alcohol consumption and tobacco use, poor academic performance, religiosity/spirituality, and HIV risk behaviour sexual assault were among other factors associated with depression among university students (A. K. Ibrahim et al., 2013; Othieno et al., 2015; Peltzer et al., 2013). This assertion could be linked with deepened poor interpersonal relationships of most university students as depression affects daily activities and has ripple effects of students’ academic performance, well-being and future career (Morley & Moran, 2011). Venta et al. (2014) aver that depression greatly impairs interpersonal relationships of individuals resulting in isolation and mental health disorder. Thus, depressed individuals are likely to be sad, unpleasant, negative, uncomfortable, low self-esteemed and passive, ditto university students. Hence, depression could be associated with inability to understand personal emotions and thereby compromise interpersonal relationships.

3. Level of quality of life

Another contributing factor limiting interpersonal relationships of university students is low-quality of life (Adewuya et al., 2006; Branje et al., 2010; Hair et al., 2008). As a social factor, quality of life was defined by World Health Organisation (WHO) as both subjective and objective social, physical and mental well-being of an individual (World Health Organization [WHO], 1993; Castro et al., 2012). That is, the individual’s perception of fulfillment and achievement of goals in relation to social values. To university students, level of quality of life could mean parental financial stability, physical and mental health, student academic performance, recreation and leisure time, social belonging, and degree of independence. University students’ low quality of life has far-reaching effects on their interpersonal relationships (Boladale et al., 2015). In a situation where students are experiencing trauma, quality of life could be compromised (Pekmezovic et al., 2011). Studies stressed that academic overload, students’ non-school activities, future job opportunity and lack of social support contributed to lower quality of life among university students (Paro et al., 2010; Pekmezovic et al., 2011). Akinyemi et al. (2012) pointed that low and middle income societies such as Nigeria may somewhat be challenged by widespread of poverty or economic deprivation and poor health care services. Fajemilehin and Odebiyi (2011) opined that low quality of life has significant influence on the overall well-being of an individual. As a result, lowered quality of life could directly or adversely affect the good interpersonal relationships of university students.

4. Emotional abuse

The last traumatising factor that could influence interpersonal relationships of university students is emotional abuse. Researchers have focussed more on physical and sexual abuse of children and adolescents, neglecting the issue of emotional abuse. As a social factor, emotional abuse produces the most destructive consequences of social, cognitive, and emotional development on its victims; these can be children, adolescents, adults or the aged (Aluede et al., 2012). Like other forms of interpersonal relationship violence, and or emotional abuse could be a deliberate and manipulative way of gaining control that involves all forms of non-physical violence and distress caused through non-verbal and verbal actions. Many university students have been victims of emotional abuse either by lecturers or by their peers (Nesbit & Philpott, 2002) subjecting them to fear, worthlessness, humiliation, loss of academic interest, poor academic performance, harassment, lowered self-esteem, intimidation and social isolation, with lasting effects on victims’ interpersonal relationships. Learning can only take place in an environment that is void of intimidation and hostility (DiVenturi, 2012). A study by Moore and Pepler (2006) affirms that emotionally abused children are susceptible to delinquency, physical aggression, and interpersonal relationship problems, which negatively affect learners’ education aspiration and ability to succeed in academic activities. Carleton (2006) noted that it is easy to identify individuals subjected to physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect since they have visible injuries. However, emotional abuse leaves hidden scars on victims with internal effects on psychological and behavioural well-being. Emotional abuse oftentimes affects self-image, self-esteem and self-worth (DiVenturi, 2012).

5. The present study

There are limited or no studies that have focused on traumatising factors that affect interpersonal relationships of university students in Nigeria. The few existing studies have focussed attention on other factors related to psychological adjustment and general well-being (Ahmad & Rana, 2011; Boladale et al., 2015; Pintrich & Zusho, 2002). However, factors that affect the interpersonal relationships of university students, depression, quality of life and emotional abuse have not gained much attention with researchers. Few studies on interpersonal relationships have concentrated on employees in organisations without tackling the issue from the university where students are being prepared for the labour market (Chung, 2014; Park et al., 2014). Given this understanding, the present study investigated depression, quality of life and emotional abuse as traumatising factors influencing interpersonal relationships of university students in Nigeria. Specifically, the study was guided by the following research questions:

1. was there any significant association between traumatising factors (depression, quality of life and emotional abuse) and interpersonal relationships of university students?

2. Which traumatising factor (depression, quality of life and emotional abuse) mostly predicted the quality of interpersonal relationships of university students?

6. Methods

Adopting a quantitative research approach, the study employed a descriptive design of correlational type for data collection and analysis. Using a multistage sampling technique, 200 undergraduate students with a history of traumatising events such as sexual assaults, higher alcohol consumption, drug use and abuse, poor academic performance in the last six months were recruited to participate in the study. The technique encompasses four stages of selection. In stage one, the researcher identified the already established faculties and departments in the university through the university’s academic planning Unit. Stage two involved five faculties that were randomly selected. In stage three, a snowball sampling technique was employed to identify students who in the last six months had experienced trauma, while in stage four, 40 students with a history of trauma were sampled from each faculty. The researcher obtained ethical approval for this study from the Social Science and Humanities Research Ethics Committee (SSHREC), University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Having obtained ethical clearance, participants’ consent was sought and granted before the distribution of copies of the questionnaire. Interested participants were assured of confidentiality and that information provided would be used for research purposes only. The researcher also informed all the participants that their participation was voluntary and that they were free to withdraw their participation at any time and that students names were not required on the questionnaire.

7. Procedure

Having filled the consent forms, participants were adequately briefed on the need to honestly respond to all the items on the questionnaire as it applied to them. They were informed that the outcome of the study would go a long way in enhancing their interpersonal relationships abilities by for better academic and future endeavours by understanding the intricacies of identified traumatising factors. The data collection process lasted four weeks during which 230 copies of questionnaires were distributed and 200 were retrieved fully filled. Thereafter, data were coded and fed into SPSS version 23 which analysed them.

8. Materials

A structured self-administered questionnaire consisting of five sections of demographic characteristics, interpersonal relationship, depression, quality of life and emotional abuse was adapted for data collection (Table 1). Specifically, the interpersonal relationship scale modified by Garthoeffner et al. (1993) was adapted and it consisted of six components: trust, empathy, comfort, self-disclosure, genuineness, and communication; it had fifty-two (52) items, out of which eighteen (18) items were reworded and revalidated to ensure cultural compatibility and internal consistency of 0.73. Item response format ranged from Strongly Agree (SA) = 4, Agree (A) = 3, Disagree (D) = 2, Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1. Scores between 1 and40 were considered poor, while good was between 41 and 80. Some of the sample of the items are; I am afraid my friends will hurt my feelings; In relationship, I am occasionally distrustful and expect to be exploited. Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) by Kessler et al. (2002) was used to measure the depression level of the respondents. The 10-item questionnaire is a global measure of distress based on questions about anxiety and depressive symptoms that a person has experienced in the most recent four weeks’ period. Each item is scaled rated from 0 (none of the time) to 4 (all of the time) and the total score was used as an index of psychological distress. The scale has an internal consistency reliability of 0.81. K10 has been widely used in Nigeria by many past researchers such as A. Ibrahim et al. (2015), Igwe et al. (2016), and Moses and Augustina (2018) which on the average yielded a Cronbach α value of 0.753. Scores from 1 to 13 were considered mild depression, 14–26 moderate depression, and 27–40 severe depression. Examples of the items includes how often did you feel tired out for no good reason; and how often did you feel so nervous that nothing could calm you down.

Also, the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (brief version) edited by Hasanah et al. (2003) and has been globally accepted. The brief version has 25 items which have been used in many countries including Nigeria to validate and measure its reliability of .88. It has a response format of from 1 = very poor to 5 = very good. Scores from 1 to 62 were considered poor quality of life and 63–125 were good quality of life. Samples of the items include how would you rate your quality of life; how satisfied are you with yourself. Also, Emotional Abuse Questionnaire (EAQ) developed by Jacobson and Gottman (1998) was adopted in this study. The scale covers four major types of abuse: sexual coercion, isolation attempts, and intimidation and verbal abuse. Twelve (12) items that reported high correlation-coefficient during the revalidation out of original 29 items were extracted for use. This was done to ensure the scale was compatible for use in the Nigeria context. The internal consistency for the subscales was .92, .94, .72, and .82, respectively Item responses ranged from frequently = 2, sometime = 1 to never = 0. Scores from 1 to 12 were considered not emotionally abused and 12–24 as emotionally abused. The following are some of the items of the scale my partner keeps me from spending time with the people I choose, my partner makes me engage in sexual practices I consider perverse; my partner threatens to break things that are valuable to me.

9. Data

Data were coded and analysed using cross tabulation and multiple correlation. Demographic characteristics of the participants included age, gender and religion, while depression, quality of life, and emotional abuse were compared with interpersonal relationship using chi square (Table 2). The relationships between traumatising factors were also established through multiple regression analysis.

10. Results

The demographic characteristics of the participants revealed that 115 (57.5%) male and 85 (42.5%) female. Forty-five (22.5%) were aged between 15 and 18 years, 93(46.5%) fell between 19 and 22 years, 53 (26.5%) were between 23 and 26 years, while only 9(4.5%) were above 27 years. Their religion characteristics show that 131(65.5%) were Christians, 67 (33.5%) were Muslims and 2 (1%) did not indicate their religion affiliation.

11. Research question one

The first research question aimed to establish if any significant association between traumatising factors (depression, quality of life and emotional abuse) and interpersonal relationships of university students in Nigeria existed. It was revealed that depression (χ2 = 6.069: p < .048) was significantly associated with poor interpersonal relationships. However, quality of life (χ2 = 383: p > .536) and emotional abuse (χ2 = 124: p < .725) were not significantly associated with good interpersonal relationships of the students in this study.

The results further demonstrated that 76% of the students reported symptoms of moderate to severe depression, 97% were not emotionally abused, and 95% had good quality of life. Therefore, depression was found to be associated with poor interpersonal relationships of the study participants partly because the majority of the participants had moderate to severe symptoms of depression; therefore, the interpersonal relationships of the university students were less satisfying.

12. Research question two

In response to the second research question which determines the relative contribution of each of the traumatising factors (depression, quality of life, and emotional abuse) to the prediction of the quality of interpersonal relationships of university students (Table 3). Findings showed all the traumatising factors significantly predicted the quality of interpersonal relationships of the participants. In term of the magnitude of contribution, depression made highest significant contribution to the prediction of the quality of traumatising factors, although the contribution was negative (Beta = −.390, t = 6.392, p < 0.001) followed by quality of life (Beta = .275, t = 4.484, p < 0.001) and emotional abuse (Beta = .172, t = 2.802, p < 0.001) respectively.

This implies that all the traumatising factors are potently influenced the quality of interpersonal relationships. That is, positive quality of life and absence of emotional abuse play a significant role on the interpersonal relationships of undergraduate students. Conversely, depression had an opposite contribution with good interpersonal relationships of the participants in this study. This indicates that the more students are depressed, the less satisfying the interpersonal relationships will be, and vice-versa.

13. Discussion

The present study advances scholarly understanding about depression, quality of life and emotional abuse as traumatising factors influencing interpersonal relationships of university students in Nigeria. The findings established that only depression had significant association with students’ interpersonal relationships while quality of life and emotional abuse did not have a significant association in the present study. All the three traumatising factors were grouped to gain further understanding about the degree of association with either good or poor interpersonal relationships of the participants. The findings revealed that the majority of the participants fell into the categories of moderate and severe depression. The finding is also in line with the study of interpersonal relationships which could be damaged or deteriorate due to the degree of trauma-induced depression experienced. This finding also lent credence to the finding of Chernomas and Shapiro (2013) that students’ academic goals are affected by the severity of depression experienced; the same can be said about the findings of Marques et al. (2014) that depressive symptoms mostly determine students’ interpersonal relationships.

Another significant finding of this study is the contribution of the traumatising factors to the prediction of the quality of interpersonal relationships. The finding revealed that depression, though negative had highest contribution to the significantly to the prediction of poor quality of interpersonal relationships, while level of quality of life and emotional abuse contributed positively and significantly to the prediction of good interpersonal relationships of the participants in this study. This indicates that the quality of interpersonal relationships was influenced by traumatising factors such as degree of depression, level of quality of life and absence of emotional abuse.

This affirms the findings of Asante and Andoh-Arthur (2015), Boladale et al. (2015), Castro et al. (2012), Moore and Pepler (2006) and A. K. Ibrahim et al. (2013) on the influencing factors of interpersonal relationships. Thus, once interpersonal relationship is affected as a result of traumatising factors, this could lead to the development of poor interpersonal relationships of university students and may probably affect their overall well-being (Fajemilehin & Odebiyi, 2011).

14. Limitation

One major limitation of this study is that a qualitative approach could have been used to explore the traumatising factors as experienced by university students in relation to their interpersonal relationships. Maybe it would have been possible to understand why, despite the high prevalence of depression, the students still reported having good interpersonal relationships. Another limitation of this study is the fact that the sample size of 200 is small compare to the large population of university students in Nigeria, which make it difficult generalize the outcomes. Also, since depression was categorised into three levels of mild, moderate and severe, other factors such as quality of life and emotional factors could be better at three levels also rather than it two level categories. The present study also had focussed on undergraduate students. It could have been extended to postgraduate students. Notwithstanding its limitations, the study in its present condition provides an understanding to traumatising experience of university students as it relates to their interpersonal relationships.

15. Conclusion and recommendations

This study demonstrated a high prevalence of depression among selected undergraduate students which was associated with poor interpersonal relationships. However, it was found that the students were not emotionally abused and they reported good quality of life. Similarly, out of the three traumatising factors identified in this study, emotional abuse and quality of life positively and significantly correlated with interpersonal relationships, while there was a negative but significant correlation between depression and interpersonal relationships of the undergraduate students. Considering these findings, the presence of trauma-induced depression indicated poor and less satisfying interpersonal relationships among undergraduate students. Based on these findings, students support programmes that could be deal with trauma-induced depression among undergraduate students was suggested. Further research, including quasi-experimental and qualitative studies, is required on interpersonal relationships of undergraduate students to explore the effectiveness of appropriate non-clinical psychotherapy or counselling intervention programmes in qualitatively exploring undergraduate students’ perspectives of interpersonal relationships.

Additional information

Funding

The author received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Kehinde Clement Lawrence

Kehinde Clement Lawrence is a Postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of educational Psychology and Special education at University of Zululand. He had his Ph.D in Counselling and developmental Psychology, Department of Guidance and Counselling University of Ibadan, Nigeria. As a seasoned researcher his research interest span through adolescents’ education, career, psychosocial and mental well-being, moral development and counselling. He is experienced in both qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research approach with ability to use structural equation modelling (AMOS and LISREL statistical packages). Dr Lawrence is a member; Counselling Association of Nigeria and Psychological Society of South Africa among others