Associations between demographic factors and perceived acculturative stress among African migrants in Germany

This study investigated the nature and extent of the associations between demographic variables and acculturative stress of African migrants in Germany with the premise that living in Germany would be stressful for Africans. Data from 85 migrants from the general population and prisons showed that 73.4% were males and 26.6% females with age ranging from 18 to 46 years. Participants completed the MAQ used in assessing acculturative stress.Results from hierarchical regression analysis showed that: majority of Africans reported racial discrimination, negative situation, a precarious job and a huge volume of daily hassles as predominant problems experienced in Germany. Acculturative stress increased with duration of stay in Germany. Family fragmentation and being separated from one’s spouse was a strong predictor of acculturative stress. Being an economic refugee was also associated with acculturative stress. Recommendations were made in the light of the conclusions made in the study

Climate Change Attitudes, Beliefs and Intentions Among Young Adults In an Institution of Higher Learning: Does Personality Matter?

The present article is concerned with the relationships between personality traits and climate change attitudes, beliefs and intentions. This was done to determine the relationship that exists between personality traits and attitudes, beliefs and intentions towards climate change issues. A descriptive survey design was used in conducting this study. The sample comprised 203 undergraduate students (116 males and 87 females) selected from various Faculties in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from the respondents. Their age ranged from 15 to 35 years (M=23.6; SD=5.2). The Big Five Personality Inventory (BFPI) and the Climate Change Attitude Survey (CCAS) were used to collect data from participants. Results revealed that the vast majority of participants agree or strongly agree that human activities cause global climate change. (46% and 37.4% respectively). Furthermore, the results showed that there is a significant influence of personality dimensions on climate change attitudes, beliefs and intentions ({F (5,195) =20.327, p<.05, R²=.326}). Also, there is no significant difference between undergraduates in science faculties and non-science related faculties on attitudes, beliefs and intention towards climate change ({t (198) =-.827, p>. 05). The study concluded that personality traits are determinants of climate change attitudes, beliefs and intentions among undergraduates in the study area. The outcome of this study has implications for policy-making in the areas of capacity building and climate change education in institutions of higher learning

Well-Being and Culture: An African Perspective

Well-being as a subject is often looked at from a Western perspective, including definitions and measurements. This, however, ignores the sociocultural characteristics of individuals or groups that may be crucial to the subjective conceptualization of well-being. The concept of well-being relates to understanding how people derive and interpret wellness regarding their interactions with other humans within the family, community and social context. This viewpoint of well-being is presented in this chapter as “holistic” from a cultural approach. The notion of well-being from an African perspective is usually defined within the framework of group norms, values, kinship relationships and ties entrenched in cultural values. The concept of well-being in this sense also runs counter to the idea of well-being in western cultures. The African is a ‘group person’, a ‘family person’ and the ‘we person’. These sociocultural features are presumed to affect or influence well-being, mental health and treatment. This chapter expounds on techniques to effectively understand the culture in health from the African perspective. We submit that culturally sensitive measures of well-being will aid deeper exploration of the construct within the African setting and allow for a construct base comparison between Western and African settings

Diversities in timing of sexual debut among Nigerian youths aged 15-24 years: parametric and non-parametric survival analysis approach.

Objective: This study examined gender, generational, cultural and social diversities in timing of sexual debut among Nigerian youths and determined factors influencing the timings. Methods: We extracted data of respondents aged 15-24 years from 2012 Nigeria nationally representative data. The outcome of interest was time at sexual debut while predictors included residence, marital status, zones, education, religion, age at first marriage. Data was censored, cox proportional hazard and generalized gamma models were used to model age at sexual debut with p=0.05. Results: The median survival time of sexual debut was 19 years, female youths were twice as likely to begin sexual activities than their male counterparts, HR=1.99, 1.87-2.11 while uneducated youths were more than twice likely to have earlier sexual debut than those with higher education, HR=2.19, 1.95-2.25. Likelihood of having had sexual debut was about 30% higher among those aged 20-24 years than those aged 15-19 years, HR=1.27, 1.19-1.36. Conclusion: Females from poor households mostly in rural areas with no education and who married early in life were more likely to have earlier sexual debut. Both teenagers and young adults are on different trajectories of sexual debut but both urgently need sexual and reproductive health education to delay sexual debut

Social worldviews and social attitudes: Examining the psychological correlates for other-concern

Social inequality or inequity is existent in every society. As such, most societies dedicate efforts to ensuring fairness and justice for all its members. The university environment constitutes a miniature society on its own and everyday broader realities of the larger society are equally applicable within the university.  The attitude that students hold with regards to social inequality could be a function of their worldviews which act as guiding principles for social conduct. In this study, the worldviews of self-transcendence and just-world beliefs were examined in relation to support for affirmative action and social dominance orientation among students. The study employed a survey approach with data collected through questionnaires from a sample of 331 (62.8% female) undergraduate students in a public university. The authors hypothesized that self-transcendence and just-world beliefs would be positively associated with support for affirmative action and negatively with social dominance orientation. Result of data analysis using structural equation modelling confirmed the hypotheses in this study. However, the relationship between just-world beliefs and social dominance orientation was not significant. Results were discussed for their implications for acceptance of social policies that try to bridge the gap between dominant and marginalised groups. The implication of findings for understanding and managing interaction between groups in an educational setting were emphasised. Recommendations were made regarding how policy makers can use knowledge of worldviews held by student in designing strategies geared towards acceptance of policies targeted at ensuring positive outcomes for members of disadvantaged groups. Suggestions for future research were given

Digital Mental Health in Ireland: Effectiveness and the Future of the Service

Purpose: Mental disorders are serious concern in our society. In the era of digital technology, Telemental health and mental health apps are becoming an avenue where people seek mental health support, but in general very little is known about the effectiveness of the service considering the complexities surrounding mental disorder as a disease. In the light of COVID-19 pandemic, researchers noticed a spike in anxiety levels amongst the populace, prompting more people to use the service. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the users of the service to check the effectiveness, the cost of the service, and to ask whether users will opt for the service in the future.Design and Methods: Three major questions were asked to adult participants (ages 18-35 years; n=50). Female participants(n-25) and Male participants (n-25).Within the semi-structured interviews, participants were also allowed to share their lived experiences to enhance this study. The questions are as follows: 1. The effectiveness of the service in terms of recovery 2. The cost of service 3. The question about the future use of the service. Differences in groups and research variables were compared across the demographics. To measure psychopathology, PHQ-9, GAD-7, SAQ, Insomnia Severity Index and ASI-Lite were used to evaluate the conditions and description of the participants. This evaluation is employed to validate the patient's threshold for Telemental health intervention. Results: The people that are more likely to use the service in the future were female (85%) than their male counterpart (64%), but the groups are similar concerning the effectiveness of the service. When controlled for gender, male (85%) and female (80%) were more satisfied with the service they receive and record a positive outlook of their conditions. Compared with first-time users of the service, regular users mention service providers as key to their recovery. Participants (18-35 years, n-50) describe depression, anxiety, addictions and insomnia as the reason for the use of the service, issues responsive to neuropsychotherapeutical and cognitive behavioural therapy. About the cost, the participants (68%) seem to be satisfied with the cost while (32%) would prefer cost re-duction. (Mean age-25.96 years) and (s.d-5.32). Implications: This data shows the effectiveness of Telemental health service. If expanded on a larger scale, it can take the pressure off the traditional mental health care system in Ireland, giving the practitioners time to focus on severe mental conditions. However, variables in the contextual description of patient's experiences will require value-based treatment where individual factors (bio-psycho-social analysis) are needed to be incorporated into the treatment. Besides, the data also reveals that continuous destigmatization of mental disorders will encourage men to opt for the service if societal judgment diminishes. Translating this data to the global data on mental disorders means that those regions, including rural areas without mental health support, that is, traditional mental health care infrastructure, their governments should be encouraged to implement Telemental health service as the effectiveness is confirmed through this data. This may help reduce the morbidity numbers linked with disorders globally, thus improving the well-being of patients. </p

Toward Sustainable Development through Nurturing Diversity

A peer-revieved book based on presentations at the XXI Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2012, Stellenbosch, South Africa. (c) 2014, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (ebook) ISBN 978-0-620-60283-9https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/iaccp_proceedings/1000/thumbnail.jp

OPTIMISING READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS

Teachers' pedagogical strategy in teaching reading comprehension cannot be neglected because when learners fail to comprehend text and give meaning to it, they experience difficulties understanding other subjects taught. This study, therefore, examined reading comprehension strategies adopted by teachers to enhance reading comprehension among primary school learners. This study adopted a qualitative research method with an interpret visit paradigm. Ten (10) teachers were purposively selected for the study one each from ten (10) primary schools. Data was collected the selected participants using semi-structured interview. The researchers ensured the trustworthiness of the interview through disclosure and corroboration. The data collected were transcribed for the purpose of analysis using the atlasti software and the thematic data analysis technique. Findings indicate that some teachers did not understand the various strategies to optimise reading comprehension. Teachers also lacked knowledge of the different learners learning preferences to plan their reading comprehension lessons. Furthermore, the lack of appropriate reading material and differentiated reading exercises for slow learners were highlighted among the challenges that hampered reading comprehension. The study recommends capacity-building programmes to provide strategies for differentiated teaching, to learn to accommodate slow learners and to provide appropriate resources by the education department