Psychological well-being: The contributions of perceived prevalence of financial crime, socioeconomic status and gender among unemployed youth in southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the contributions of perceived prevalence of financial crime, socioeconomic status and gender on psychological well-being among unemployed. The cross-sectional survey research design was employed. Participants were 288 unemployed graduates sampled in Enugu, southeastern Nigeria. They were aged 24-35 years, with a mean age of 28.6 years. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) developed by Goldberg (1972) was administered on the participants to assess their psychological well-being. A three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed that participants differed significantly in their psychological well-being with participants high in perception of prevalence of financial crime reporting poorer health than those with low perception of prevalence of financial crime. Participants high in socioeconomic status reported poorer health than those low in socioeconomic status. Female participants reported higher GHQ-12 scores indicating poorer health than their male counterparts. The results suggested that once prevalence of financial crime is highly perceived it can be deleterious to health.