Traumatic Learning Conditions as Predictors of Academic Adjustment Among Secondary School Students in Insurgency-Affected Resettled Communities of Northeast Nigeria

Abstract

The protracted Boko Haram insurgency in Northeast Nigeria has created deeply traumatic learning conditions for thousands of secondary school students in resettled communities of Borno State, with far-reaching consequences for their academic functioning and educational recovery. Despite growing humanitarian efforts, limited empirical attention has examined how traumatic learning conditions predict academic adjustment among students in insurgency-affected resettled communities. This study investigated traumatic learning conditions as predictors of academic adjustment among 368 senior secondary school students in Bama, Gwoza, and Konduga Local Government Areas of Borno State, Nigeria. A correlational survey research design was adopted, and participants were selected through multistage sampling from nine public secondary schools across the three Local Government Areas. Data were collected using the Traumatic Learning Conditions and Academic Adjustment Questionnaire (TLCAAQ) and analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and multiple linear regression. The findings revealed that students experienced high levels of traumatic learning conditions across four dimensions exposure to violence and insecurity, displacement-related experiences, trauma-related emotional distress, and disruption of schooling while academic adjustment was markedly low. All four dimensions significantly and negatively predicted academic adjustment, with trauma-related emotional distress emerging as the strongest predictor (β = -0.256, p < 0.001), followed by displacement-related experiences (β = -0.253), disruption of schooling (β = -0.215), and exposure to violence and insecurity (β = -0.204). The study concludes that traumatic learning conditions constitute a significant threat to academic adjustment in insurgency-affected resettled communities and recommends the integration of trauma-sensitive educational policies, school-based counselling services, and structured psychosocial support programmes into educational recovery frameworks for conflict-affected students in Borno State and comparable contexts.