Physical Child Abuse Among Secondary School Students in A Community in Benue State

The study aimed to examine occurrences of physical child abuse among secondary school students in a community in Benue State. The study utilized a cross-sectional research design to achieve its objectives. The data collection instrument used was the Physical Child Abuse Questionnaire (PCAQ). The study took place in Igumale, Ado Local Government Area of Benue State. The survey included 800 secondary school students from six secondary schools in Igumale. There were 300 respondents in the sample. Three experts from the Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, face validated the instrument. The instrument’s reliability was determined by testing the Spearman’s rank order correlation formula, resulting in a reliability coefficient of .842. The data from PCAQ copies was encoded and analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM-SPSS) version 22 for Windows. The research questions were answered using frequencies and percentages. 58.7 per cent of secondary school children in Igumale experienced physical child abuse. 60.0 per cent of secondary school students aged 10-14 experienced physical abuse, which is higher than the 56.9% of students aged 15-19. The percentage of male secondary school students who encountered physical abuse (60.5%) is greater than the percentage of female students who experienced physical abuse (57.3%). The percentage of physical abuse among parents with no formal education is 59.6%, primary education is 52.6%, secondary education is 76.9%, and tertiary education is 49.2%. Therefore, parents with secondary education have the highest rate of physical abuse. The recommends greater investment in programmes that have shown effectiveness in averting abuse before it occurs.