| Summary: | The third goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at guaranteeing healthy lives and the promotion of well-being for all at all ages by 2030. Quite a number of health-related challenges, such as psychopathological challenges, could hinder the attainment of this laudable goal if not curtailed. Psychopathological difficulties among children and adolescents have been reported worldwide in various empirical studies. Children and adolescents from homes exemplify with parental abuse have been identified to reflect symptoms of psychopathology. Biological fathers have been indicted in some studies for perpetrating four significant dimensions of abuse. However, the extent to which these impact on children and adolescents is yet to be supported empirically. This study, therefore, examined the predicting value of paternal psychological abuse and gender on children and adolescents’ psychopathology symptoms. Participants for the study were 120 purposively sampled children and adolescents from secondary schools in Akwa Ibom, State, Nigeria. An Ex-post facto design was utilised for the study. Adolescent Personal Data Inventory (APDI) and Parental Psychological Abuse Multidimensional Scale (PPAMS) were used to gather data. Analysis of data through linear regression showed that paternal psychological abuse predicted psychopathological symptoms (adjusted R ≤ 2%, p < 0.05) and t-test statistic revealed that there were no significant gender differences in participants who were psycho-pathologically challenged and psychologically abused by fathers. These findings imply that for the third goal of SGDs to be attained, contributory variables making a significant impact on psychopathological symptoms must be identified and kept at bay.
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