Symptoms of psychopathology among street hawkers in Enugu Metropolis Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the incidence of of psychopathology among street hawkers in Enugu metropolis, capital of Enugu State, Nigeria. 200 randomly drawn participants aged between 12 and 17 years, made of 100 hawkers (50 male and 50 female) as the experimental group and 100 non-hawkers (50 male and 50 female) as the control were measured on Awaritefe Psychological Index form C. This is a 51 item personality inventory designed to screen psychopathological symptoms in normal population and has a positive correlation coefficient of .49 at P. < 05 with Maudsley Personality Inventory. The hawkers were drawn from four major layouts namely New Haven, Obiagu, Abakpa- Nike and Uwani all in Enugu while the non-hawkers were senior secondary 1, 2 & 3 students of University of Nigeria Secondary School Enugu Campus. Results showed a significant difference, P< .001, between hawkers and non-hawkers in manifestation of psychopathology but this did not differ according to gender. The implications of the findings were discussed.