African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues

A strategy to mainstream climate change and related disasters into mental health policies and programmes in Isiolo County.

2021-12-09T17:04:31+00:00

The research on epidemiology on mental disorders related climate change disasters is inadequate to advice effective management and integrated implementation of the Paris agreement, Sustainable Development Goals and Sendai framework in the county. The objective of this research is to develop a strategy to mainstream climate change and related disasters into mental health policies and action plans in Isiolo County. Published and unpublished sources; questionnaires among focused group discussion selected sample size (N=24), Key Informants (N=35) and household socio-economic survey (N=288) were utilized to gain insight on current proposed and existing policies and programmes. These were compared to identify the linkages and existing gaps to be able mainstream mental health and extreme climate disaster risks in policies and plans in structure model framework. The study established that major health and non-health interventions during disasters included: provision of food and medicines (50.9% responses), support by Council of Elders (27.1% responses), restocking (10.2%) and minimal rehabilitation services (11.9% responses). The humanitarian programmes in rural areas is higher than in urban areas because the biggest risks of weather-related extremes lie in rural areas of which is expected to be pragmatic in future. The actor’s involvement to manage disaster risks in context of climate change extreme events on mental health is dismal. The model of inclusivity and integration suggests overlapping and complementary practices of preparedness, response, and recovery. An alternative and participatory Climate Change Disaster Adaptation Model was devised to strengthen institutional coordination mechanisms and monitoring to improve adaptation and resilience building approaches. Climate change and health strategic interventions require a nexus approach, consisting of trans-disciplinary team. The inclusion of the improved climate adaptation planning and sectoral integration in relevant new and existing policies adaptation action plan to focus on development of planning processes and strategies that apply to environmental psychology by use of CCDAM model is proposed.

Military-connected adolescent aggressive tendency scale: development, validity and reliability

2021-12-09T17:04:32+00:00

This study documents the development and validation of a tool to measure aggressive behaviour tendencies among adolescent children of military personnel in Nigeria. Existing scales measuring aggressive behaviour were reviewed and a qualitative study to determine prominent issues relating to aggressive behaviour and its manifestation among this population was conducted. From themes generated, those related to aggressive behaviour were utilised to construct a 28-item aggressive behaviour scale. Among 147 adolescent children of military personnel, a cross-sectional survey was carried out to test the reliability and validity of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis factored the scale into three sub-dimensions (Physical, Verbal and Relational aggression) with items loading from 0.63 to 0.80. Convergent validity was established between the Military-Connected Adolescent Aggressive Tendency scale (MAATS) and the Buss and Perry Aggression questionnaire (r= 0.583, p< .001). While divergent validity was established between the MAATS and Multi-dimensional perceived social support scale (r=0.003, p<.001). The scale yielded an adequate internal consistency of α= 0.862, a Guttmann Split half coefficient of 0.769, Test-retest reliability of 0.78 and Split-half reliability of 0.734 (form a) and 0.757 (form b) with 0.783 as correlation between the forms. The result of the statistical analyses suggests that the MAATS has adequate psychometric properties and is a reliable and valid measure of assessing aggressive behaviour tendencies among adolescents of military personnel.

The impact of climate change-induced disasters on mental health in Isiolo County, Kenya

2021-12-08T17:17:50+00:00

Isiolo County in Kenya is susceptible to the effects of extreme climate events and exposure to natural hazards, and the residents have limited capacity to adapt but also suffer from related mental health conditions that rarely researched. The modelling and projections of disease epidemiology caused by climate extreme events to foster climate-mental health initiative is insufficient. The methods of data collection used included: rainfall/temperature data derived from gridded 10km of sixteen satellite meteorological stations (1984-2013); mental disorders epidemiological data (2006-2014) from the health information system, Isiolo County and in-depth observation among 60 in-patients and 121 out-patient; six focused group discussion and workshop sessions among selected sample size (N=24); key informants (N=35) and household socio-economic survey (N=288) was conducted to gather socio-economic aspects of the target population.. The quantitative data was analysed using statistical tools in Excel, SPSS version 20 while rainfall and temperature analysis was done using R software (version 3.21) and ranked mental health data using diagnostic tools criteria. Correlation analysis was done to determine the varying trajectories of sets of bivariate data and positive correlation was noted between mental disorder cases and total annual rainfall. The prevalent mental disorders included: anxiety (54%); 32% each for dissociative, sleeping, and adjustment disorders; and 39% for eating and poly-substance disorder. The mental disorder comorbidity revealed the association to disaster risks which increase mental illnesses. The study found that the prevalence rate of mental disorders was high and resilience was low. A need to develop robust environmental health procedures to diagnose mental disorders and quantify the epidemiology caused by disaster risks is vital. The study recommends mapping of mental disorder epidemiology and make it user friendly to advice policy, scale up solutions and accelerate evidence informed advocacy on adaptation and resilience mental health programme strategies.

Roles of employment status and emotion regulation in death anxiety among people living with HIV/AIDS

2021-12-09T05:56:22+00:00

Death anxiety is one of the most commonly observed mental health sequelae of HIV/AIDS. However, there is limited research on contributions of employment status and emotion regulation strategies in death anxiety. This study examined the role of employment status and contributions of emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) in multidimensional death anxiety among people living with HIV (PLWHA). The dimensions of death anxiety consisted of four facets, namely, death acceptance, externally generated death anxiety, death finality, and thoughts about death. Participants were 186 PLWHA (M_age = 34.16 years, 56.5% women) from the HIV/AIDS care unit of a tertiary healthcare institution in south-eastern Nigeria. Data was collected using self-report measures of the variables, namely, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Death Anxiety Inventory - Revised (DAI-R). Participants also provided some demographic information including their employment status. We found that employed persons reported lower death anxiety. Cognitive reappraisal did not significantly predict any of the dimensions of death anxiety. Expressive suppression predicted reduced anxiety about death in the dimensions of death acceptance and death finality. The emotion regulation strategies failed to moderate the association between employment status and death anxiety, such that the impact of employment status on death anxiety did not vary as a function of deployment of specific emotion regulation strategies. Findings underscore the benefits of formal employment, and how interventions can help to improve the employment situation of PLWHA.

Family support and clinical correlates among patients with schizophrenia in a neuropsychiatric hospital in Nigeria

2021-12-09T06:03:55+00:00

In developing countries, families play a central role in caring for the mentally ill. However, the assessment of the level of family support in relation to the sociodemographic and clinical factors of schizophrenia patients have not been well researched. This study is a furtherance of the management schizophrenia patients by assessing their level of perceived family support and its relationship to their socio-demographic and clinical variables. It is a cross-sectional descriptive study of 100 patients with schizophrenia attending the outpatient clinic of a specialist psychiatric hospital, for follow up care. Diagnoses were based on ICD-10 Diagnostic criteria for research. The questionnaires administered to the participants consists of clinical and socio-demographic factors and self-rated 20-item Perceived Social Support-family scale. Most participants had strong family support (96%) while the rest had weak family support. The unmarried participants were associated with higher family support scores than the married. (Mann Whitney U=548.00, p=0.03). There was no relationship between family support and age or duration of illness and treatment. It is important to strengthen the existing family support and to utilize it in the management of patients with schizophrenia. This will reduce the burden on families and contribute to better outcome measures among schizophrenia patients.

Victimization of men and the veracity of wife-to-husband abuse in research reports: implications for domestic violence counselling

2021-12-09T13:01:01+00:00

Spousal abuse in marital relationships has a long history in human society, but it is skewed as men’s maladjustment behaviour while manifestation of similar behaviour in women is ignored or underreported. The consequence of genderisation of spousal abuse is that husbands will continue to suffer in silence while suffering abuse diverse types of abuse from their wives without any intervention from significant others in the society. This paper is an attempt to demonstrate the reality of husband’s abuse by their wives and point out that this is sparsely or underreported in researches focusing on spousal abuse. It was suggested that spousal abuse in marital relationship can be mitigated through domestic violence counselling intervention.

The influence of depression and anxiety on help-seeking behaviour among infertile women in South-Western Nigeria

2021-12-09T13:07:22+00:00

There is a critical gap in psychological research on the subject of help-seeking for depression and anxiety resulting from infertility. This study addressed help-seeking behaviour of infertile women who reported symptoms of depression and anxiety as a result of their infertility in South-Western Nigeria. The study was correlational design. A sample of 555 respondents receiving infertility treatment was purposively selected from three tertiary hospitals in South-Western Nigeria. The age of the women ranged from 20-59 years, while the mean and standard deviation of the women's age were 33.44 years and 19.90 years respectively. Two standardized scales: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); and General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ) were completed by the women. The data collected in the study were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses.

Infertile women reported less than 10% normal depression level, mild depression of 38.6%, followed by moderate 31.1% and then severe 21.1% depression respectively. In addition the women reported 12.1% normal anxiety level while most of the women reported mild anxiety of 44.5% followed by moderate 26.9% and then severe 18.5% anxiety respectively. There was a statistically significant negative correlation among depression, anxiety, and help-seeking behaviour (r= - 0.20, P<.05).

An exploratory spatial analysis of household size from 2006 to 2010 in Nigeria

2021-12-09T13:16:11+00:00

Large household size of more than 5 persons per household (POPFACT, 2017) can hinder the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by creating an unnecessary burden on family and the nation. Existing studies on household size have focused more on its consequences with limited attention to its pattern and causes. In addition, the smaller spatial units have mostly been the focus of such analysis and where a national data was used, the set of predictors often identified were assumed to explain the variations in household size across the component units. Due to differences in socioeconomic characteristics of residents and government policies, one expects differential predictors of household size in a multi-ethnic and multicultural country like Nigeria. Using the 2011 household survey data from the National Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS, 2011), Moran-I, spatial regression, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used to analyse the spatial dependency in household size with a view to identifying its spatiotemporal correlates and predictors. The Moran-I showed that states that are contiguous have similar or near similar household sizes. Polygamy (r = 0.723, P<0.05), food poverty (r = 0.478, P<0.05), absolute poverty (r = 0.506, P<0.05) and a dollar-per-day poverty (r = 0.503, P<0.05) had a positive relationship with household size. Conversely, percentage of people using family planning (r = -0.687, P<0.05), unemployment (r = -0.434, P<0.05), percentage of the literate (r = -0.537, P<0.05), and number of higher institutions (r = -0.558, P<0.05) had negative significant relationship with household size. Improved use of family planning, access to education and encouraging monogamy will help in reducing large family size in Nigeria.

Awareness and perception of urban forestry and greening among dwellers in Ibadan Metropolis- an implication for psychological wellbeing

2021-12-09T13:22:29+00:00

One out of the many natural components with multiple functions is urban forestry and greening. It plays important roles in social, cultural, economic and landscape enhancement. It also provides recreational facilities, as well as environmental development of urban dwellers in Nigeria as a whole and Ibadan in particular. Apart from all these benefits, a forest experience is considered to be an approach to promoting positive moods in modern urban dwellers, which is important in relieving depression and other common mental health problems. This study was undertaken to ascertain the level of awareness and perception of Ibadan urban dwellers about the psychological implication of urban forestry and greening. One hundred (100) questionnaires were administered to the respondents to assess their awareness and perception of urban forestry and greening in fostering psychological wellbeing. The study reveals that dwellers in Ibadan Metropolis are aware of the fact that urban forestry and greening improve psychological well-being and promote positive moods. Despite their awareness and perception, the result of the study reveals that the practice of urban forestry and greening has not been well embraced. Therefore, this study put forward some recommendations to promote the practice of urban forestry and greening among the dwellers.

Demographic factors predicting psychological distress among pregnant women in a selected teaching hospital in Lagos, Nigeria

2021-12-09T13:31:56+00:00

The study investigated Demographic factors predicting psychological distress among pregnant women in a selected General Hospital. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Participants consisted of one -hundred and eighty-four pregnant women using a convenient sampling technique to select the participants. The results showed a 16.2% prevalence of depression and 17.5% for anxiety among pregnant women. The age ranges from 23-39 years with a mean of 29.87, SD 2.48. The revealed that age, duration of marriage, duration of waiting jointly predicted anxiety (F (3,183) = 11.788; p<.01). There was significant independent prediction of age (β= .245 p<.01) and duration of marriage (β=.172 p<.05) on anxiety while duration of waiting (β= .123 p>.05) had no significant independent influence on anxiety. Also, age, duration of marriage, duration of waiting jointly predicted depression [F (3,183) = 21.562; p<.01]. Age (β= -.158 p<.05) and duration of marriage (β= -.393 p<.01) had significant independent influence on depression while duration of waiting (β= -.072 p>.05) had no significant independent influence on anxiety. Individual with positive history of abortion experiences increased level of depression compared to those that did not have any positive history of abortion [t (182) = -3.989 p<.05]. Pregnant women who plan their pregnancy experiences reduced level of depression compared to those who did not plan their pregnancy [t (182) = 2.687 p<.01]. It is, therefore, recommending that there is need to incorporate mental health components in RCH (Reproductive & Child Health) program for pregnant women.

Influence of work environment, behavioural pattern and self-esteem on employee job performance in Lagos State

2021-12-09T17:04:33+00:00

Organizations strive on the collective effort of the employees that make up the organization and for higher productivity to be attained, several factors must interplay. In this study, the influence of work environment, behavioural pattern and self-esteem on employee’s job performance in Lagos State were explored. A number of works have been done on the above variables and their influence on job performance, but only very few have shown the pivotal role played by the work environment on the other variables. This study filled this gap in an attempt to show the interrelationships of the variables. Survey design was employed where 113 respondents were randomly selected from the Lagos State Secretariat Alausa. Two hypotheses were formulated at the 0.05 level of significance. The study employed a questionnaire on employee job performance (QEJP) to measure the influence of the predictor variables on criterion variable in selected organizations in Lagos State. Results indicated a significant relationship exist between performance on the job and self-esteem (r = .361, p < .05), behavioural pattern (r = .231, p < .05), and work environment (r = .314, p < .05). Self-esteem was the strongest predictor of employee job performance (β = 0.231; t = 3.389; p < 0.05), and next was work environment (β = 0.168; t = 2.860; p < 0.05). There was however no significant effect of educational level (F _{(1, 100)} = .863, p > 0.05) and marital status (F _{(1, 100)} = 3.221, p > 0.05) on employee job performance. Employees’ work environment invariably forms a relationship between the employer and the employee. A comfortable and conducive work environment may promote work effectiveness of workers and lead to increased job performance.

A review of planning and politics interrelationship in Africa

2021-12-09T13:50:36+00:00

The study examined the interrelationship between planning and politics in the context of Africa. Generic, systemic and process view of planning and politics were reviewed with a view to advancing the understanding of their operations as processes with almost the same inputs which emanate from man’s needs, environmental issues and challenges but differs in output. Tracking the history of planning politics in Africa, it revealed that it is an aged long phenomenon and instrument being used by the government for physical development. Considering the indicators of planning politics such as meeting people's demand, decision-making process, overriding interest, public interest and implementation of plans revealed that planning and politics cannot be divorced.

Living conditions of urban households in Lagos Island

2021-12-09T13:54:52+00:00

In recent times, the number of urban households living in poverty in Nigeria is increasing due to declining income. Consequently, the living conditions of urban households are nosediving. In this paper, the living conditions of urban residents in Nigeria were examined using Lagos Island area, Nigeria as an example. Taking a sample of 1,000 households in a cross-sectional survey, the paper examines household structure and characteristics, home ownership, educational status and employment, access to safe water, sanitation and healthcare services. Mean household size 4.92 mean monthly household incomes N66, 468.43 (US $183) N33, 798.96 and number of rooms occupied by household 2.46. Largest household size 7.45, crammed into 2.39 rooms and in some localities, some households containing 5.20 persons are crammed into 1.53 rooms. Literary level is high, about 87% of the sampled heads can read and write. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is low as about 29% of household obtained their domestic water from tanker or water vendor. Other obtained theirs from unhygienic sources. About 83% of household heads indicated that the drains in their areas are not covered. Daily supply of electricity is very poor. Mean daily hours of electricity supply to household is 4.972.88. One-way ANOVA indicated significant spatial variation in household size (F=6.179 at P = 0.000), average monthly income (F=34.38 at P ≤ 0.05) and number of rooms occupied by households (F=3.36, at P ≤ 0.05). An inverse relationship between household monthly income and household size was obtained at r = -0.086 at p = 0.03, indicating the existence of large household among low-income earners. The significant spatial discrepancies in the socio-economic conditions of residents of Lagos Island as indicated by this study shows the potential need for differentiated policy responses that will accelerate functional development in various spatial units of this essential and important economic core of Lagos City and Nigeria at large. There is the need for urgent collective efforts at facilitating improved access to decent and affordable housing, education, employment and sanitation.

Qualitative study of the use of social media by church personnel for religious activities in Ibadan, Nigeria

2021-12-09T13:59:50+00:00

With the invention of social media, religious organisations like churches have started to incorporate them into their activities. This is because social media has made information sharing faster and more convenient. This study adopts a qualitative approach and provides answers to six research questions. Data were collected from 20 respondents via one-to-one interviews. The respondents include Pastors, church administrators, and Information Technology (IT) personnel in selected churches in the Ibadan metropolis. WhatsApp was the most commonly used social media platform among the churches for information dissemination and preaching. Social media was found to be a good avenue to reduce physical meetings and gatherings in churches, as meetings and prayers could be held through the various social media platforms. The study among others recommends that Cyber church should be promoted among churches in order to encourage people who might not have opportunity of attending the physical churches, as this will give them a sense of belonging among the Christian community.

Influence of family and spiritual supports on coping with infertility among couples in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

2021-12-09T14:04:50+00:00

The study examines the influence of family and spiritual supports on coping with infertility among couples in Ibadan, Oyo state Nigeria. The study adopts a descriptive survey research. One Hundred and Seventy-five (175) couples were purposively selected. A self-structured and validated questionnaire with a reliability co-efficient value of 0.85 through the use of Cronbach alpha method was used for data collection. Four (4) trained research assistants helped in data collection. Analysis was done using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that family support greatly influence coping ability of couples attending family health clinic (r=0.846, df =173, p<0.05). It further revealed that, family support significantly influences emotional status of couples attending family health clinic (r=0.763, df =173, p<0.05). Finally, there is a significant influence of spiritual support on coping ability of couples attending family health clinic (r=0.840, df =173, p<0.05). The study concludes that there is a relationship between family and spiritual support and coping ability among couples expe infertility. It was recommended that family members should support couples experiencing infertility both psychologically, socially and spiritually to reduce depression, discrimination and stigmatization. The social workers and other health stake holdersriencing should create awareness about coping with infertility among couples. Government should subsidise treatment to restore hope among couples experiencing infertility.

Socio-psychological factors associated with substance use among senior secondary school students in Nyanya and Mararaba areas of the FCT and Nasarawa State, Nigeria

2021-12-09T14:13:24+00:00

The study investigated the socio-psychological factors associated with substance use among senior secondary school students in Nyanya and Mararaba areas of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Nasarawa State, Nigeria. An ex post facto, cross-sectional research design using stratified sampling technique was adopted to recruit 179 participants (M=85 and F=94) who were senior secondary school students (SSI-SSIII) from selected public secondary schools in Nyanya and Mararaba areas of the FCT and Nasarawa. Three psychological research instruments were used in the study: Adolescent Alcohol Substance Use Questionnaire was used to assess adolescents’ substance use, Nowicki and Strickland Locus of Control Scale was used to assess locus of control while Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale was used to assess global self-esteem (self-worth and self-acceptance) of adolescents. Three hypotheses were tested in the study. Findings indicated that there was a significant prevalence rate of alcohol use (X2 (1) = 8.106, P< .05), cigarettes (X2 (1) = 3.881, P< .05) and marijuana (X2 (1) = 7.326, P< .05) with no statistically significant prevalence rate for other drugs among Senior Secondary School Students. The result further showed a significant relationship between substance use and locus of control (r[177] = 0.226, P< 0.01), no significant relationship between substance use and self-esteem (r[177] = 0.077, P> 0.05). The results showed that age, gender, family background and locus of control jointly predicted substance use ([R= .359; F= 5.129, p< .01]) among secondary school students. Independently, gender (β= -.212; t= -2.713, p< .05) and locus of control (β= .207; t= 2.700, p< .05) significantly predicted substance use but age (β= -.107; t= -1.443, p> .05), family background (β= -.001; t= -.015, p> .05), and self-esteem (β= .155; t= 2.106, p> .05) did not predict substance use. By implication, the findings suggest that there is a high prevalence of substance use caused by some socio-psychological factors such as gender, family background, locus of control and self-esteem among senior secondary school students in Nyanya and Mararaba areas of the FCT and Nasarawa State. We therefore recommended that Government at various levels, Professional Associations like the Nigerian Psychological Association and NGOs should initiate well-articulated preventive and intervention programmes such as having counsellors in schools to help change attitudes / behaviours and reverse the trend of drug use among secondary school students.