GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL ANXIETY AS PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF STUDENTS IN NIGERIAN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS: IMPLICATION FOR COUNSELLING

Abstract

Many Nigerian children, adolescents and adults have suffered from school anxiety and other psychological disorders through the breath of the educational system. This paper highlights types of social anxiety and the study was designed to investigate gender differences in social anxiety as psychological problems of students in tertiary institutions in South-Western Nigeria. The sample for the study was six hundred and six (606) students consisting of 374 females and two hundred and thirty two (232) males randomly selected from six (6) tertiary institutions in Ogun and Lagos states. The instrument for the study was a structured questionnaire Tertiary Institution Students’ Social Anxiety Scale (TISSAS) designed by the researcherwas used for data collection.Three research questions and one hypothesis were formulated to guide the study, while t-test was used to analyze the difference in the males and the females social anxiety in all the problem areas at .05 level of significance. Results indicated a significance difference in the general male and female social anxiety problems. Mean scores of the female highest ranked social anxiety is 3.17 ( = 3.17) while male respondents mean highest rank is 3.00 ( = 3.00) this showed that female mean score was found greater than the male. There was also significant difference with regards to specific/very severe social anxiety problems of the two groups. Implications of the findings for social anxiety counselling/Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) were drawn and areas of further studies suggested.