Effect of trauma on school dropout; case study: Aweil state, South Sudan

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of trauma on school dropout among children in primary schools of Aweil state South Sudan. The objectives of the study were: to determine the level of trauma among children in Aweil state, to assess the level of school drop-out among children in Aweil state primary schools, to establish the influence of trauma on school dropout in Aweil state primary schools. The focus of the study was trauma looking at three aspects; lack of basic needs, death of parents and lack of state security while the dependent variable was school dropout looking at contributing indicators like financial status, distance to school plus early and forces marriage. A descriptive cross-sectional research design with quantitative and qualitative research methods was used during this study in Aweil state South Sudan. The sample size of the study was 140 respondents (school dropout children). A questionnaire was the main tool for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Statistics revealed it is evident that trauma has an impact on school dropout in Aweil State South Sudan.Study findings based on Standardized Coefficients (beta) present that, lack of state security is significant and contributes most at b = 0.283 which is (28.3%) to school dropout. Lack of basic needs contributes less at b = 0.177 (17.7%) to school dropout at a p = 0.031. Death of parents was found not to be significant with the p- value more than 0.05 level of significance.