Emotional child neglect, depression and grit amongst school going teenagers in Uganda

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate, the relationship between emotional child neglect, depression and Grit. The study examined the relationship between emotional child neglect and depression amongst school going teenagers and investigated the relationship between emotional child neglect and grit among school going teenagers. It also assessed the relationship between grit and depression among school going teenagers. A quantitative study design was used in the study. It focused on correlation study design to assess the statistical relationship among variables. The respondents were between the age of 12 to 21 years and they were both male and females, in both A ‘Level and O’Level. These were selected using purposive sampling method. Data collected was processed and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to test the hypotheses. Results showed that, there was no significant relationship between emotional child neglect and grit emotional child neglect and depression were also not significantly related Furthermore depression and grit were also not significantly related. In conclusion, many children in Uganda experience acts of emotional child neglect and they go unnoticed because they do not have physical signs on the other hand depression has been realized by many health workers and a few of the victims are helped. Research into the field of grit presents new challenges for psychologists and behaviorists as will be seen in this study.