Traumatic events and XXXX among youth in Southwest Nigeria: a qualitative analysis.

@entity1 @entity308 @entity458
Traumatic experiences have dire consequences for the mental health of young @entity1 . Despite high rates of traumatic experiences in some African cities, there are no reports for Nigerian youth. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the pattern of traumatic events and their association with @entity308 among youth in Southwest Nigeria. METHODS: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study of randomly selected youth in urban and rural schools in Southwest Nigeria. They completed self-reports on traumatic events and @entity308 using the Street @entity1 's Project Questionnaire and the Youth DISC Predictive Scale (DPS). RESULTS: Of the 1,768 responses (88.4% response rate) entered into the analysis, 34% reported experiencing a traumatic situation. Following interpretative phenomenological analysis, 13 themes emerged. Frequently occurring traumatic events were 'road traffic accidents' (33.0%), 'sickness' (17.1%), 'lost or trapped' (11.2%) and 'armed robbery attack' (9.7%). A bad dream was described by 3.7%. Traumatic experiences were commoner in males (36.2%) than in females (31.6%) (x2 = 4.2; p = .041). Experiencing a traumatic event was associated with @entity308 (X2 = 37.98; p < .001), especially when the event directly affected the youth as in @entity458 . CONCLUSIONS: One-third of youth in Southwest Nigeria have described an experienced traumatic event. Road traffic accidents, armed robbery attacks, and communal disturbances depict the prevailing social environment, whereas 'bad dreams' revealed the influence of cultural beliefs. Policy makers must be aware of the social issues making an impact on the health of youth. Multi-agency interventions to improve the social environment and provide mental health services for traumatized young @entity1 are essential.
