Frequency of anger and its potential relationship with Selfesteem and Adverse Childhood Experiences among Medical and Sociology undergraduate students in Pakistan

Objectives: To determine the frequency of clinical anger, adverse childhood experiences, self-esteem, and their mutual relationship among undergraduate medical and sociology students.

Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, data from 400 undergraduate medical and sociology students was collected from the Northwest School of Medicine, Peshawar, and the sociology department of the International Islamic University, Islamabad, from July to September 2021. A self-administered questionnaire incorporating a Clinical Anger Scale (CAS), Adverse childhood experience (ACE) scale and Rosenberg self-esteem (RSE) scale was utilized for data collection. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA and logistic regression model were executed to perform data analysis using SPSS.

Results: The mean CAS score was 19.65 ± 13.23 suggesting that 60.2% of the participants experienced mild to severe degrees of clinical anger. Females were experiencing more anger issues than males (64% vs 54%, p = 0.040) RSE scale showed that 72.8% of the participants had low self-esteem with a mean score of 12.70 ± 5.43. Besides, 51.5% of the participants had at least one type of adverse childhood experience while 15.8% of the sample population reported being sexually abused in childhood. Significant correlation was found between CAS and age, ACEs and RSE score (p = <0.01). The logistic regression model also suggested that the prevalence of anger was higher in individuals with ACEs (OR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.14, p = <0.001) and low self-esteem (OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.22, p = <0.001).

Conclusion: The high frequency of clinical anger necessitates the implementation of periodic screening across all universities. Keeping in mind the problem of low self-esteem and the history of ACEs, there is an urgent need for the development of strategies to preserve and improve the mental well-being of the young generation.