Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Psychopathic behavior; Academic; Adjustment; Secondary school; Student; Education

Adjustment as a process describes and explains the ways and means of an individual’s adaptation to himself and his environment without reference to the quality of such adjustment or its outcome in terms of success or failure. It is an organizational behaviour in life situations at home, at school, at work, in growing up and in ageing. It helps one to keep out basic impulses a tolerable level, to believe in one’s own abilities and to achieve desired goals. Thus, adjustment helps for self-initiated growth and development along intellectual emotional, social, physical, and vocational dimensions. Adjustment refers to the psychological process through which people manage and cope with the demands of and challenges of everyday life. It is also seen as a process in which an individual attempts to deal with stress tension, conflicts and meet his/her needs while making efforts at the same time to maintain a harmonious relationship with the environment. This implies that the individual and the environment are two important factors in adjustment [1]. Adjustment in psychology is the behavioural process by which one maintains equilibrium among various needs and between needs and the obstacles of environments.

Academic adjustment of students is seen as the degree of student’s adaptation to academic activities and environment in their educational life. The amount of accomplishment of students in their studies is displayed by student’s success in dealing with different kinds of educational demands academic adjustment is a necessity for students to excel in what they do in the school environment which some students find it difficult to adapt to in their new environment after being use to their home environment. Students adjust academically well, if they have motivation, believe their capabilities implement their abilities, be satisfied with their chosen career or school and the level of loyalty to their academic aims. Students who are opposite of the above mentioned conditions always experience academic deficiencies. This adjust may enable students to adapt to the rules, regulations and other environmental conditions that prevail in the school system. However, a student’s academic adjustment could be measured by ascertaining his or her level of social, emotional and cognitive skills which aid the child to respond favourably to the demands of the school environment. A sequence of adjustment begins when a need is felt and ends, when it is satisfied. Adjustment process involves four parts (1) a need or motive in the form of a strong persistent stimulus, (2) the thwarting or nonfulfillment of this need, (3) Varied activity, or exploratory behaviour accompanied by problem solving, and (4) some response that moves or at least reduces the initiating stimulus and completes the adjustment. A well-adjusted student is one who does not get affected adversely by the interactions such a conflicts, emotions and whose personality development goes through a healthy course of socialization.

Academic adjustment refers to a situation where students develop their coping skills and learning strategies aiming at achieving satisfactory academic achievement. Academic adjustment potentials enable students to cope better with pressures of peers, school life academic challenges. Academic adjustment also has to do with students’ adaptation to school life and culture. It is a continual process in which the students vary their behaviour to produce a more harmonious relationship with school environment. School adjustment can be viewed as comprising academic, social and emotional adjustment. Adjustment is necessary for academic achievement poor adjustment result poor academic achievement and performance.

Psychopathic traits are personality disorder associated with anti-social behaviour lack of impaired empathy and remorse, bold, disinhibited and egotistical traits. Psychopathic adolescents show selfish and manipulative behaviour, emotional detachment with reduced responsiveness to emotional stimuli. Immediate facial muscles responses to the emotional expressions of others reflect the expressive part of emotional responsiveness and are positively related to traits empathy [2]. Psychopathy is a personality disorder defined by a specific set of behaviour and personality traits evaluated as negative and socially harmful. This personality disorder represents a combination of interpersonal (e.g. manipulative, egocentricity), affective (e.g. lack of remorse or guilt), and behavioural (e.g. irresponsibility, criminal behaviour) characteristics.

The early intervention of psychopathic traits in children and adolescents might result in quick interest and reduction of what could later become a persistent pattern of anti-social and aggressive behaviour. Specifically, psychopathic youth are more likely to be diagnosed with childhood. Onset conduct disorder and present with a greater variety and seriousness of delinquent and anti-social behaviour (e.g. fighting, causing serious injury, stealing, vandalism, and purposely killing animals, moreover, adolescent psychopathy is associated with a higher number and annual rate of prior violent offences.

According to Hare, a psychopath is an individual who presents antisocial behaviour, but at an interpersonal level, he is at the same time engaging and emotionally detached, centred on himself and looking for new sensations insensitive but intelligent and talkative, devoid of remorse and empathy but capable of seduction in order to satisfy his narcissistic need for social dominance and omnipotent interpersonal control.

Psychopaths like anti-socials lack genuine emotional ties with others and remorse but behaves in emotional coldness combined with those of a particular seduction and manipulation with utilitarian purpose, they become predators, sadists and conceal very violent acts. Thus an individual may possess psychopathic characteristics but cannot be classified as a psychopath unless he or she exhibits a distinct cluster of the symptoms. Psychopathy is a discrete disorder that has a greater concentration on interpersonal and affective traits. Psychopathic personality is said to exhibit symptoms early in life and remain relatively stable throughout adulthood.

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are a meaningful specified in Subtyping Conduct Disorder for more severe antisocial and aggressive behaviour in psychopathology; they represent the affective dimension of adult psychopathy, but they can be also detected in childhood and adolescence. The CU traits include lack of empathy, sense of guilt and shallow emotion, and their characterization in youth. This trait may have influence on academic adjustment of students in the school system. A strong genetic liability, in interaction with parenting and relevant environmental factors, can lead to empathy and remorse, with shortlived emotions. The daring-impulsive domain (also named impulsivity or psychopathy-related impulsively) traits include irresponsibility, proneness to boredom, novelty seeking and antisocial behaviour.

Callous-unemotional (CU) behavioural traits are a cluster of affective and interpersonal risk factors for anti-social behaviour that include shallow affect, lack of remorse and cruel disregard for others which may affect their academic adjustment since they cannot easily learn from others due to their behaviour with others. From research finding anti-social behaviour is unique for youths with high levels of cu traits including distinct neurological and psychological profiles.

Longitudinal data shows that CU traits add to the prediction of serious and persistent criminal behaviour in boys. Furthermore, CU traits have been shown to be associated with overt aggression, delinquency and behavioural deregulation. The affective characteristics of psychopathy (CU traits) can be delineated in adolescents and may be a risk index for later psychopathy, as well as other forms of poor outcome. Researchers suggest that adolescents with CU may have an impoverished personal experience of fear and guilt, which could in part explain why they have such difficulty perceiving others’ distress. Children with CU report comparable experiences of fear and guilt to typically developing children which can influence their academic adjustment. (Jones, Happe, Gilbert, Burnett and Viding found that neither group of adolescents with antisocial behaviour has difficulties in perceiving the thoughts and intentions of other people.

Frick and Lahey found that addictive genetic influences on low levels of prosociality (similar to high levels of callousness) accounted for 20% of the variance in symptoms of conduct disorder which affects students’ academic adjustment.

Salami investigated the influence of psychopathology on students’ academic adjustment and the moderator effects of study behaviour callous-unemotional behaviour and motivation. Data collected from 476 SS 2 students were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. Results showed that study behaviour callous-unemotional behaviour and motivation correlated significantly with academic performance and moderated the psychopathology academic adjustment nexus [3].

Nwafor, Onyeizugbo and Anazonwu investigated the interaction effect of callous-unemotional cu traits and academic adjustment among Nigeria adolescents. The study made use of 295 senior secondary school students. The result showed that gender correlated significantly with uncaring and academic adjustment but did not correlate significantly with CU and callousness. The result further showed that gender CU traits uncaring and callousness subscales significantly predicted academic adjustment. Gender also moderated the effect of CU traits and uncaring on academic adjustment but did not moderate the effect of callousness on academic adjustment.

Allena, Morrisa and Chhona investigated the relationship between callous-unemotional (CU) traits and response to academic adjustment in adolescent boys using a mixed methods approach. Participants comprised 39 boys aged between 12 and 13 years and eight teachers. Quantitative findings showed that CU traits were significantly related to punishment insensitivity, controlling for conduct problems, autism symptoms and academic adjustment [4]. In contrast, there was no significant association between (CU) traits and reward sensitivity. Qualitative analysis indicated that teachers view children high in CU traits as responsive to fewer reward and discipline strategies, and strategies need to be implemented and monitored with care to avoid unintended, undesirable outcomes. Egocentric behaviour is one of the basic concepts in the psychological characteristics of the personal identity. The egocentrism reflect a certain interaction of the person and environment and also his relation to the world in general which is characterized by the person on the image in this world.

Egocentrism is the position of the personality which is characterized by concentration on own feelings, experiences, interests. The egocentrism can also appear as inability to understand and consider information from other people contradicting own experience. The basis of egocentrism is misunderstanding by the person that existence other points of view is possible and also confidence that the psychological organization of other people is identical to his own. Egocentrism is regarded typically as a problem of early cognitive development although such childish thought may not be entirely absent even in later periods of development. Ukaegbu and Obikoya adopted correlation design to investigate psychosocial factors predicting academic adjustment of first year university undergraduates in Rivers State, Nigeria [5]. The authors reported their findings as indicating that emotional intelligence, social support, self-esteem. Egocentric behaviour and coping strategies taken together significantly influence on academic adjustment of first year university undergraduate in the same vein. Ward and Kenneely found an influence of egocentric behaviour on academic adjustment, a sample of 113 British citizens living in Singapore for the study. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance with an f. value of 3.86 at .05 levels of significance. At the end of the study avoidant coping style that encompassed behavioural disengagement, egocentrics behaviour, venturing of emotions, the ability to see the potentially positive aspects of change and mental disengagement resulted in poor psychological health while using humour and active coping style to facilitate academic adjustment.

Ndukaihe, Anyaegbunam and Adetula studied egocentric behaviour and learning styles as predictors of students’ academic adjustment. The participants in the study were 1269 drawn from public secondary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria using multi-stage sampling technique. Simple and multiple regressions were used for data analysis. Results showed that egocentric behaviour significantly relate with academic adjustment of students.

Deception has been regarded as common aspects of human interactions across cultures. Essentially, deceptive behaviour refers to the act by which one deliberately makes a false statement with the intent to instill false beliefs into the mind of the recipient. Lee, Bala and Lindsay observed that the number of deceptive statements begins to increase as early as 2 years of age. Children become successful lie tellers by the time they’re 3 years old, nearly all of them being able to deny transgressions, and their abilities to deceive and maintain consistency in their subsequent statements keep improving well into the middle childhood. Around this time, they eventually end up developing a sense of conscious concealment, meaning that they are able to deliberately keep secrets or hide relevant information. Talwar & Lee discovered no significant relations between deception skills and academic adjustment in 3- to 8-year-olds [6].

Deceptive behaviour is found on a daily basis in different human interactions. Applicants such as security, business, online interactions, and criminal investigation triggered research interest in deceptive behaviour. The relation between deception and inhibition was more consistently documented by using strop tasks or deceptive pointing paradigms. The ability to deceive in relation to individual differences in set-shifting skills was only investigated in adults and a few studies found this relationship to be significant. There has been little research on how emotional factors shape a child’s ability to conceal critical information.

Akande and Ikediashi investigated the level of deceptive behaviour and academic adjustment among secondary school students in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. The study was a deceptive survey and the population comprised all senior secondary school students in both public and private schools in the FCT. A sample of 450 students made up of male and female students from the both the private and public schools were involved in the study. Patil ‘Adolescent’s Academic Adjustment Inventory’ was adopted by the researchers to collect relevant data. The data collected were analyzed by using percentage to analyze data on the research question while t-test and ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that secondary school students had a low level of academic adjustment. There was no significant difference in the level of students’ academic adjustment on the basis of gender or school type. However, a significant difference was found between public and private school students in their level of academic adjustment [7]. It was recommended that both public and private secondary school management and teachers should promote conductive psychological environment in their schools that will enhances emotional adjustment ability of the students.

Babiak, Neumann and Hare achieved more success in the search for successful psychopathy. Using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and 360o assessment’ (a popular performance assessment in business contexts), the authors aimed to establish prevalence of psychopathy in their sample of 203 corporate professionals and assess the relationships between psychopathy factors and performance assessments. Results indicated the prevalence of deceptive psychopathy was markedly higher in their sample than in community samples. Moreover, individuals with higher deceptive psychopathic traits were considered high and occupied positions of greater seniority. A position correlation was also found between psychopathy scores and charisma/presentation style, which is a superordinate category for skills such as good communication, strategic thinking and creativity. Psychopathy was also negatively correlated to responsibility/performance ratings, which covers mindfulness of others and managerial skills.

However, academic adjustment is a continuous process by which a student varies his/her behaviour to produce a more harmonious relationship between himself/herself, school activities and his/her environment. It implies changes in our thinking and way of life to the demands of situation. Winga, Agak and Ayere defined adjustment as the psychological processes through which people manage or cope with the demands and challenges of everyday life [8].

Adeyemo investigated the relationship between deceptive trait and academic adjustment of students transitioning from primary school to secondary school. Participants in the study were 200 fresh secondary school students randomly selected from five secondary schools in Ibadan City, Nigeria. Questionnaire designed by Shagufta, Zhenhong, Ghaffari and Zafar was used to assess the students’ opinions of the subjects. To assess the adjustment of the participants, section J of Adolescent Personal Data Inventory (APDI) by Akinboye was used. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed to analyze the data. Results showed that there was a significant relationship deceptive behaviour and academic adjustment of students.

Abdullah, Elias, Uli nd Mahyuddin investigated the relationship between deceptive behaviour and academic adjustment of 250 first year students attending various undergraduate programs at Malaysian public university. The participants were randomly selected for the study. The study was correlational design and data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings showed that there is significant and positive relationship between students’ deceptive behaviour and academic adjustment, social adjustment, personalemotional adjustment, students’ attachment, and academic adjustment.

Results also indicated that throughout a period of one semester, students’ overall adjustment and academic achievement were found to be significantly predicted by their deceptive behaviour.

McNulthy conducted a research to predict adolescents’ adjustment based on deceptive behaviour. 250 high-school students were selected randomly using cluster sampling. The instruments of the study included the Bar-On Deceptive Behaviour Questionnaire and the Adjustment Inventory. Multiple regression analysis showed that deceptive behaviour was able to the adolescents. Moreover, t-test analysis showed that there were significant differences in social adjustment between girls and boys [9].

In a related study, Jung and Chung investigated the effect of selfesteem, deceptive behaviour and social support on College Nursing Students’ Academic adjustment in first year. 270 first year nursing students were randomly selected for the study. Researcher developed questionnaire and interview were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regressions with SPSS were used for analyses of data. A positive correlation was found between self-esteem, deceptive behaviour and social support on college nursing students’ academic adjustment. Aggression is an intention to cause harm or an act intended to increase relative social dominance. It can be physical, verbal and non-verbal. Aggression may occur in response to social and non-social factors and can have a close relationship with stress coping style. It may be displayed in order to intimidate [10].

Aggressive tendencies are exhibited by both boys and girls, though boys are believed to be more aggressive than girls. Boys of larger physical stature engage in physical aggression. Both sexes exhibit aggressiveness from childhood stage to adulthood, physical aggression just like verbal aggression is a behaviour which can be learned as early as 2years of age. Involvement in aggressive anti-social behaviour is not good for students, it does not allow them develop appropriate behaviour but increases the likelihood of further aggression, maladjustment and academic/social failure. Aggressive tendencies stem from different factors, students’ biological make up family background, community, school and value system are some of the factors, if a student is unstable due to any of the above factors he or she may suddenly be disturbed and exhibit destructive tendencies. Haggai opined that aggression in school intrudes not only on the rights of others; it impairs the normal operation of classroom interaction school communal life, hostel living as well as other social settings such as sports and extracurricular activities [11]. This in effect militates against development and students’ academic adjustment. In a national survey of crime and safety in Nigeria by Clean Foundation it was discovered that aggressive behaviour was on the increase in Nigeria.

Eric Erickon’s Psycho-Social Theory (1963)

Erikson was a student of Freud who believed that human are inherently rational and that social forces determines people emotional and social behaviours. Erikson’s theory is termed psychosocial theory is termed psychosocial theory because of the initial strong influence of social circumstances on the development of internal emotional feelings. The theorist viewed development as a progression of eight stages and said that the individual has a psychosocial task to master during each stage. If the task during each stage is mastered, a positive quality is built into personality and further development takes place. If the task is not mastered and the conflict is unsatisfactorily resolved, the ego is damaged because a negative quality is incorporated in it.

Erikson identified eight developmental sequences of crisis or psychosocial stages which impact a person’s personality. The theorist considered the development of identity through the interaction of an individual with his environment from childhood to adulthood. Erikson viewed a well formed personality as a strong sense of identity, which builds a warm and caring relationship with others. The author also believed that personality develops according to one’s ability to interact with the environment.

The relevance of this theory to the study is that the formation of identity begins in childhood and becomes particularly important during adolescent for the development of their motor and intellectual abilities to adjust in their academic activities and environment. Therefore students who explore the world (within safe limits) gaining new experiences and assuming more responsibility for initiating and carrying out plans can help other students adjust academically.

The issue of academic maladjustment of students is of great important to all individuals especially to the students who would be helped in developing good adjustment besides their intellectual progress in school. A successful academic adjustment of students will enable them complete their studies. The present society is dynamic; hence the needs of human beings are increasing tremendously which needs to be fulfilled. This poses serious threat to the maladjustment of the individuals particularly the adolescents/secondary school students. The problem of maladjustment among students is a crucial problem in the modern world. This problem is a matter of such pervasive concerns that books, articles, magazines, scientific journals among others, dealing with maladjustment problems are appearing more repeatedly. The poor academic adjustment problem of students in recent times may be attributed to psychopathic behaviour problems such as callous unemotional behaviour, egocentric behaviour, aggressive behaviour, deceptive behaviour and apathetic behaviour among other behaviour exhibited by secondary school students. High incidence of psychopathology has been found among secondary school students in Nigeria by previous researchers. Governments have employed guidance counsellors in public schools and recommended same in private schools to provide counselling services to students in order to arrest/ameliorate callous unemotional, egocentric, aggressive, deceptive and apathetic behaviour among students. The researcher wonders why, despite the government efforts, the problems still persist. The researcher therefore, seeks to find out how psychopathic behaviour influence academic adjustment among secondary school students in Ikom Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria?

Statement of Hypotheses

The following hypotheses are formulated for the study:

➢ Callous unemotional behaviour does not significantly influence with academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State.

➢ There is no significant influence of egocentric behaviour on academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State.

➢ Aggressive behaviour does not significantly influence on academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State.

➢ There is no significant influence of deceptive behaviour on academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State.

➢ There is no significant collective influence of psychopathic behaviour (callous-unemotional behaviour, egocentric behaviour, aggressive behaviour and deceptive behaviour) on academic adjustment among secondary school student in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State.

Research Design

The research design chosen for this study was survey research design. The choice of this design is because the research involve sample of students sampled from the entire population of all the students in the zone. More so, at the end of the survey, inferences will be drawn from the results of analysis of data obtained from the field. This design allows the collection of data that can accurately and objectively describe psychopathic behaviours as it affects students’ adjustment in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State.

Population of the Study

The target population of the study will be all the senior secondary one students (SS 1) in Southern Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. The population of the study is 12,424 senior secondary students in Calabar Education Zone, comprising 6,120 male and 6,304 female in the 84 public secondary schools in the zone.

Callous unemotional behaviour does not significantly influence academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State. Independent variables: Callous unemotional behaviour Dependent variables: Academic adjustment Analysis technique: Simple Regression Analysis

Hypothesis Two

There is no significant influence of egocentric behaviour on academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State. Independent variables: Egocentric behaviour Dependent variables: Academic adjustment Analysis technique: Simple Regression Analysis

Hypothesis Three

Aggressive behaviour does not significantly influence academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State. Independent variables: Aggressive behaviour Dependent variables: Academic adjustment

Analysis technique: Simple Regression Analysis

Hypothesis Four

There is no significant influence of deceptive behaviour on academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State. Independent variables: Deceptive behaviour Dependent variables: Academic adjustment Analysis technique: Simple Regression Analysis

Presentation of Result

In this section each hypotheses is re-stated, and the result of data analysis carried out to test it is presented. Each hypothesis of the study was tested at 0.05 level of significance.

Hypothesis One

Callous unemotional behaviour does not significantly influence academic adjustment. The independent variable in this hypothesis is callous unemotional behaviour; while the dependent variable is academic adjustment. Simple regression analysis was the employed to test with hypothesis. The result of the analysis is presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Simple regression result of the influence of callous unemployed behaviour on academic adjustment.

The simple regression analysis of the influence of callous unemotional behaviour on academic adjustment produced an adjusted R2 of .223. This indicate that the callous unemotional behaviour account for 22.3% of the determinant academic adjustment in the study area. The F-value of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) obtained from the regression table was F= 165.754 and the sig. value of .000 at the degree of freedom (df) and 574. Since p<.05, the null hypothesis is rejected. The implication of this result is that callous unemotional behaviour has significant influence on academic adjustment.

Hypothesis Two

Egocentric behaviour does not significantly influence academic adjustment. The independent variable in this hypothesis is egocentric behaviour; while the dependent variable is academic adjustment. Simple regression analysis was employed to test this hypothesis. The result of the analysis is presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Simple regression result of the influence of egocentric behaviour on academic adjustment.

The simple regression analysis of the influence of egocentric behaviour on academic adjustment produced an adjusted R2 of .520. This indicated that the egocentric behaviour accounted for 52.0% of the determinant academic adjustment in the study area. The f-value of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) obtained from the regression table was F= 624.344 and the sig. value of .000 at the degree of freedom (df) 1 and 574. The null hypothesis was therefore rejected considering that p <.05. The implication of this result is that egocentric behaviour has significant influence on academic adjustment.

Aggressive behaviour does not significantly influence academic adjustment. The independent variable in this hypothesis is aggressive behaviour; while the dependent variable is academic adjustment. Simple regression analysis was employed to test this hypothesis. The result of the analysis is presented in Table 3.

Table 3: Simple regression result of the influence of aggressive behaviour on academic adjustment.

The simple regression analysis of the influence aggressive behaviour on academic adjustment produced an adjusted R2 of .173. This indicated that the aggressive behaviour accounted for 17.3% of the determinant academic adjustment in the study area. The F-value of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) obtained from the regression table was F = 120.894 and the sig. value of .000 at the degree of freedom (df) 1 and 574. This result led to the rejection of the null hypothesis as p< .05. The implication of this result is that aggressive behaviour has significant influence on academic adjustment.

Hypothesis Four

Deceptive behaviour does not significantly influence academic adjustment. The independent variable in this hypothesis is deceptive behaviour; while the dependent variable is academic adjustment. Simple regression analysis was employed to test this hypothesis. The result of the analysis is presented in Table 4.

Table 4: Simple regression result of the influence of deceptive behaviour on academic adjustment.

The simple regression analysis regression analysis of the influence of deceptive behaviour on academic adjustment produced an adjusted R2 of .109. This indicated that the deceptive behaviour accounted for 10.9% of the determinant academic adjustment in the study area. The F-value of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) obtained from the regression table was F = 71.130 and the sig. value of .000 at the degree of freedom (DF) 1 and 574. Based on the fact that p <.05, the null hypothesis was therefore rejected. The implication of this result is that deceptive behaviour has significant influence on academic adjustment.

Discussion of Findings

This section is concerned with the discussion of findings that emerged from the result of the analysis. The discussion is presented in accordance to the variables of the study.

Callous Unemotional Behaviour and Academic Adjustment

The result of the first hypothesis study indicated that, callous unemotional behaviour significantly influenced academic adjustment. This implies that the callous unemotional behaviour account for 22.3% of the determinant academic adjustment in the study area. The implication of this result is that callous unemotional behaviour has significant influence on academic adjustment. The finding is in line with the view of Friedlander, Reid, Shupak and Cribbie showed that gender influence significantly with uncaring and academic adjustment but did not correlate significantly with CU and callousness. The result further showed that gender, CU traits, uncaring and callousness subscales significantly influenced academic adjustment. Gender also moderated the effect of CU traits and uncaring on academic adjustment. The discussion focused on the ways of helping individuals with high level of CU traits to reduce aggression, also the limitations of the study, suggestions for further studies and implications of the finding were highlighted.

Salami also showed that psychopathology influenced negatively and non-significantly with academic adjustment of student’s behaviour, callous-unemotional behaviour and motivation influenced significantly with academic performance and moderated the psychopathology academic adjustment nexus. The researcher suggest the need for counsellors to design therapeutic interventions for alleviating the students’ psychopathology, increasing their study skills, self-efficacy and motivation for improved academic adjustment.

Blair, Moffitt and Plomin also reported that in a large (N = 7.374) population-based study of 7-year-old twins, the genetic influences on childhood-onset conduct problems were considerably greater in those high on CU traits (81%) than for those who showed normative levels of CU traits (30%), and this was independent of conduct problem severity and the child’s level of hyperactivity-impulsivity at age 9.

The result of the second hypothesis indicated that, egocentric behaviour significantly influenced academic adjustment. The finding of this study agrees with that of Elkind who reconstructed Piaget’s four broad stages of cognitive development to show that each stage is imbued with a form of egocentrism. In the sensory-motor period, for example, egocentrism is evident when the infant stops looking for hidden objects; as if such objects no longer exist if out of sight. The sensory-motor child is egocentric with respect to objects to the extent that object permanence is confused with object perception. Sensory-motor egocentrism is overcome when children are able to form mental representations of absent objects, an ability that emerges with the symbolic functions of preoperational thought, the next stage of cognitive development. At this stage objects have permanent existence, even when not perceived, because they exist symbolically as cognitive representations. Although pre-operations liberate the child from sensory-motor egocentrism, it ensnares the child in a form of egocentrism with respect to symbols. Indeed, most of the classic examples of egocentrism are linked to this stage of cognitive development. Hence children in early childhood are unable to infer the cognitive, affective or visual perspective of others. Their thinking is prone to realism, animism and artificialism.

The preoperational egocentrism is overcome by the emergence of concrete operations, the next stage of cognitive development. At concrete operations the child can now hold two mental representations at once (such as, symbol and referent, objective and subjective) and hence distinguish between them Adolescent egocentrism also encourages the construction of “personal fables” that showcase the selfrelative to others. Three fables capture the egocentrism of adolescence.First, adolescents are convinced of their personal uniqueness. Second, often as a result of their uniqueness, adolescent evaluate risks in a way that emphasizes a sense of invulnerability. Third, egocentric adolescents revel in subjective omnipotence, believing the self to be a source of unusual influence or power within their peer network. Personal fables are differentially related to adaptation in adolescence. For example, personal uniqueness predicts internalizing symptoms,especially in girls. Invulnerability influence risk behaviour and also influence internalizing symptoms. Omnipotence influences mastery coping and indices of positive adjustment.

Nidhi and Kermane also showed that, there was no significant difference found in adjustment problems of high academic achievement student and low academic achievement students. There exists a negative influence of adjustment problems and achievement of boys and girls of visual handicapped students of a special school at Faridabad. The findings show that, there was no significant influence on educational adjustments of the special school students belonging to boys and girls.

Aggressive Behaviour and Academic Adjustment

The result of the third hypothesis indicated that, aggressive behaviour has a significant influence on academic adjustment. The findings are in line with the view of Aluede who stated that violence in schools was an issue that had become more prominent in the last few years, as news articles about violent deeds within the school setting are now on the increase. Aggression among secondary school students is an issue of concern among stakeholders in education essentially because a school is an institution designed for teaching and learning. Unarguably, teaching and learning can only successfully take place in a conducive environment devoid of intimidation, harassment, insecurity and fear. In secondary schools the use of weapons such as; knives, dagger, bottles, axes and clubs for fighting among student is common especially during inter-class fights and inter-school sports competitions. Many students sustain injuries during such clashes. Physical fight between one student and the other including bullying are frequent occurrences in secondary schools.

Nwokoroku also noted that the nation’s institutions of learning have been turned into battle fields by students. She reported that in the campuses students engage in aggressive acts towards one another and even towards teacher and non-teaching staff. Students have been observed to engage in such acts of aggression as violence, rape, extortion, burglary, killing, maiming and sexual harassment. They are also frequently associated with vulgarities, abduction and insults at one time or another.

Irozuru and Ukpong also revealed that family size, family structure and family type significantly influence students’ aggressive behaviour which affects students’ academic adjustment. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that parents should be encouraged to live together as partners and show love and concerned to their children. Counselling psychologists should counsel the students to reduce or eliminate aggressive behaviour among them.

Deceptive Behaviour and Academic Adjustment

The result of the fourth hypothesis indicated that, deceptive behaviour significantly influenced academic adjustment. The findings are in line with the view of Visu-Petra, Ovidiu and Fizesan (2014) who revealed that out of the children sampled, the vast majority (69.8%, n= 44) did not peck at all, while 19% (n = 12) peeked on both conditions. From the few remaining subjects who peeked only on one condition (11.1%, n = 7) 7.9% (n = 5) peeked on the physical evidence condition when it was first, 2 children peeked only on the second condition, I when it was the physical evidence second, I when it was the no physical evidence second. Significant correlations was found between inhibition and age r (62) = 54, p<.01, short-term memory and age, r (63) = .33, p<.01 and set-shifting and age, r (63) = .30, p<.05. Gender was not found to be influence by any of the measures we have used. No significant influence was found between the presence or absence of peeking behaviour and children’s executive functioning skills or his/her internalizing or externalizing symptoms. However, most of the typical relations within and between subcomponents of executive functions and internalizing/externalizing symptoms were noted.

Akande and Ikediashi also indicated that secondary school students had low level of academic adjustment. There was no significant influence in the level of students’ academic adjustment on the basis of gender or school type. However, a significant influence was found between public and private school students in their level of academic adjustment. It was recommended that both public and private secondary school management and teachers should promote conducive psychological environment in their schools that will enhance emotional adjustment ability of the students.

Summary of the Study

The main thrust of this study was to examine the influence of psychopathic behaviour and academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of this study the following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study.

➢ Callous unemotional behaviour does not significantly relate with academic adjustment. ➢ Egocentric behaviour does not significantly relate with academic adjustment. ➢ There is no significant relationship between aggressive behaviour on academic adjustment. ➢ Deceptive behaviour does not significantly relate with academic adjustment.

Literature review was carried out accordingly. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. This research design was used for the study because it was considered appropriate as the researcher has no direct control over the independent variable. A sample of five hundred and seventy-six (576) students was used for the study. The sample was selected through stratified and simple random sampling techniques. The questionnaire was the instrument used for the data collection. The questionnaire was validated by two experts in Measurement and Evaluation and one from Guidance and Counselling. The reliability estimate of the instruments was established through Cronbach Alpha reliability method.

Regression analysis was the statistical technique employed to test the hypotheses under study. Each hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the analysis revealed that, callous unemotional behaviour, egocentric behaviour, aggressive behaviour and deceptive behaviour significantly influenced academic adjustment among secondary school students in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. Based on the findings of the study it was recommended among others that counselling psychologists should counsel the students to reduce or eliminate aggressive behaviour among them.

Conclusion

Based on the above research findings or the study, the following conclusions was reached that, callous unemotional behaviour, egocentric behaviour, aggressive behaviour and deceptive behaviour significantly influenced academic adjustment among secondary school students (SS 1) in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria.

Recommendations

On the basis of the findings in this study, the following recommendations were made:

➢ Post primary school management board should introduce personality programmes to help in training the students emotionally to adjust academically such as communication skills, self-esteem, confidence, could be done by planning activities in a classroom and encouraging students to participate.

➢ Parents should be encouraged to live together as partners and show love and concerned to their children.

➢ Counselling psychologists should counsel the students to reduce or eliminate aggressive behaviour by stressing on the disadvantages of aggression and how to control their anger by developing empathic understanding.

➢ Students involve in aggression cases should be referred to the school counsellor who will in turn use a strategy of positive reinforcement such as praises and rewarding positive social behaviour.

➢ Both public and private secondary school management and teachers should provide conducive psychological learning environment in their schools that will enhance emotional ability of the student which involved learning situation and interaction among them.

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