Gender Differences, Personality Traits and Mental Health among Secondary School Adolescents in Enugu, South East Nigeria

Background: Our thinking, feelings and behaviour as well as our unique individuality can contribute a lot to our mental health. Furthermore based on personality traits it has been argued that some people may be more prone to mental health problems than others. Adolescents are generally perceived as a healthy age group but reports revealed that in spite of this as many as 20% of them in any given year experience mental health problems.

Objective: This study assessed gender differences, personality traits and mental health among secondary school adolescents in Enugu, south east Nigeria.

Study Design: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study design.

Place and Duration of Study: Enugu, south east Nigeria, between October-December 2014.

Methods: The general Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), the Big Five Personality inventory and a socio-demographic questionnaire were used to assess 432 secondary school adolescents (216 males and 216 females) in Enugu for prevalence of personality traits and mental health.

Results: The prevalence of personality traits varied among the subjects with neuroticism being the most prevalent (22.9%), while extraversion was the least prevalent (16.9%). The study further revealed that mental health problem was present in 23.6% of the subjects.

Conclusion: The study had revealed the prevalence of various personality traits and mental health problems among secondary school adolescents who took part in the study. It is recommended that adolescent counselling and regular personality assessment in schools be introduced.