Abstract
The literature is dominant with findings that financial crisis and socioeconomic stressors lead to psychological disorder and physical ill health. None of the available studies was conducted in Nigeria, particularly in the Southeast region. This paper investigates if: socio-economic hardship and stressors have any significant impact on people’s psychological health and well-being; and if the impact of socio-economic hardship and stressors on people’s psychological health and well-being have social policy and environmental buffer in Southeast Nigeria. Researcher’s modelled questionnaire was used to generate data from a sample of 1000 respondents (male = 521 and females = 479) drawn from the capitals of the five states in Southeast Nigeria. The analysis of data generated was carried out with the aid of tables, % formula, and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 for purposes of determining their mean and standard deviation, and for descriptive purposes. Results of the analysis reveal high-level prevalence of financial crisis and socioeconomic stressors in the region that tend to influence respondents’ psychological health and well-being through anxiety and stress. Among others, it reveals also the efficacy of religious activities and doctrinal teachings together with illegal sources of incomes as effective buffers to the potential negative impact. The study concludes that financial crisis and socioeconomic stressors have potential negative impacts on people’s psychological health and well-being in Southeast Nigeria, however, religious activities and doctrinal teachings together with illegal sources of incomes serve as buffers to this impact. The significance of these findings lay in their drive to introduce effective social policy and establish institutionalised professional counselling services across the region.
Highlights
Financial crisis, decline in economic growth, and recession are historical experiences that have continued to cause rising rate of unemployment, job loss, currency devaluation, poverty, and hardship among people in the Less Developing Countries (LDCs) Nigeria
Hardship emerges from individuals’ perception of inherent financial constraints and/or expectation of future financial problems [21], which translates into emotional disorder or psychological ill health/problems
Majority of the respondents belonged to 28-37 age group with 52.38%, while employed category constitutes 63.07% i.e. 626 respondents, pensioner category constitutes 11.05% i.e. 110 respondents and 25.88% i.e. 256 respondents constituting unemployed. 68.94% i.e. 684 of the respondents earn less than N100,000.00 i.e. $206 monthly while 46.75% i.e. 464 respondents are family bread winners
Summary
Decline in economic growth, and recession are historical experiences that have continued to cause rising rate of unemployment, job loss, currency devaluation, poverty, and hardship among people in the Less Developing Countries (LDCs) Nigeria In such financial crisis, hardship emerges from individuals’ perception of inherent financial constraints and/or expectation of future financial problems [21], which translates into emotional disorder or psychological ill health/problems. A holistic construct of the concept refers the totality of life satisfaction that is imbedded in the quality of life one experiences This encapsulates the level of satisfaction of human needs, and the state of mental and physical health such as absence or prevalence stress, functioning/disability status, and physical symptoms [6, 19]. Well-being is associated with multiple health, job, family, and economically related
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