Educational Attainment, Country of Residence and Marital Status as Predictors of Women Spiritual Help-Seeking Behavior

S K Balogun,Gladys Ngoram,Khadijeh Moradi,S E Oladipo

doi:10.5539/res.v5n1p82

Abstract

Literature has consistently revealed across different countries of the world that large proportions of those who attend spiritual houses are women and they attend to seek help on diverse issues. However, it is not known if one’s country of residence, educational attainment and marital status will predict women spiritual help-seeking behavior. The objective of this study was to find out how the variables as indicated above would predict spiritual help-seeking behavior of women in Nigeria, Iran and Cameroon. Using an ex post facto design and multistage sampling, 314 participants that participated in the study were drawn from Nigeria, Iran and Cameroon. Validated scale was used to collect data and the hypothesis tested was accepted. Thus, country of residence and marital status significantly predicted spiritual help-seeking behavior of women, whereas educational attainment was not a significant predictor. Deriving from above, professionals should begin to focus on the development of cross-cultural spiritual therapeutic measures that will address African women’s specific problems as well as considering the level of educational attainment of help-seekers in addressing their problem. A limitation of the study however is the small sample size, which may be addressed in further researches.

Highlights

The process by which individuals seek help for problems or stressful life situations they experience has been a focus of inquiry in the literature for several decades and a great deal of research has examined the help-seeking process, resulting in a multitude of help-seeking correlates and predictors (Koenen, Goodwin, Struening, Hellman, & Guardino, 2003)
This has left a vacuum in literature in this regard, more so when one looks at the fact that the few literature available has consistently revealed across different countries of the world that large proportions of those who attend spiritual houses are women and they attend to seek help on diverse issues (Rahaman, 2000)
The purpose of the present study was to find out if country of residence, educational attainment and marital status will influence women spiritual help-seeking behavior in three countries i.e. Nigeria, Cameroon and Iran. This was informed by the previous studies of Balogun et al, (2009), and Oladipo et al (2010) who have established that marital status and educational status significantly predicted spiritual help seeking behavior of women in Nigeria

Summary

Introduction

The process by which individuals seek help for problems or stressful life situations they experience has been a focus of inquiry in the literature for several decades and a great deal of research has examined the help-seeking process, resulting in a multitude of help-seeking correlates and predictors (Koenen, Goodwin, Struening, Hellman, & Guardino, 2003). Very few foreign literature is available on help-seeking behavior of women and there seems to be non that focuses on spiritual help-seeking behavior of women in particular. This has left a vacuum in literature in this regard, more so when one looks at the fact that the few literature available has consistently revealed across different countries of the world that large proportions of those who attend spiritual houses are women and they attend to seek help on diverse issues (Rahaman, 2000). People seek help, because they are experiencing distress, and because they are inclined to perceive others as potential sources of support and help

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Conclusion