Psychological Factors Fostering and Affecting Marital Stability

When peaceful atmosphere is replaced with chaos in marriage, the consequences are usually grievous.  It results in marital instability, marriage separation, divorce or even death of the couple.  This has serious effects on the home, family, children of the marriage, society and the nation.  This paper is focused on Psychological factors that could foster marital stability. The paper explained the concept of marital stability, examined and discussed several factors that could be adopted to aid and enhance marital stability by couples.  It is stated that such factors as communication between spouses, intimacy, emotional bonding, commitment, affection, parental roles, spouse’s employment, job and sexual satisfactions as well as religious orientation are some of the factors that could affect or enhance marital stability.  Based on these, it is recommended that couples should ensure and cultivate the habit of effective marital communication, affection, intimacy etc to enhance their marital stability

The DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES OF PARENTS AS PREDICTORS OF CAREER PREFERENCE OF IN- SCHOOLADOLESCENTS STUDENTS IN ABIA STATE

This study investigated Demographic Variables of parents as predictor of career preference of in-school adolescents students in Abia State. Five research questions and five hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Multi-stage sampling technique was used for the study. On the whole, 10% (690) of the SS2 senior secondary school (SS2) students in 2018/2019 academic sessions was selected from the three educational zones of Abia State namely, Umuahia Educational, Ohafia Education and Aba Educational Zones of Abia State. Two instruments used for data collection were developed questionnaire titled: Demographic Variable of Parents Questionnaire (SEBPQ) and Career Preference Questionnaire (CPQ). The instruments were structured into three sections as follows: (a) personal data, (b) Demographic Variables of parents, and (c) students career preference. The data for the study were collected by the researchers’. This was made possible with the help of the three research assistants who were Masters Students of the corresponding author. Out of the 690 copies of the questionnaire administered, 648 copies were returned and used for the analysis representing 96.6% rate of return. Data obtained through the administered questionnaire were organized and analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation to answer the research questions while linear regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. Based on the data collected and analyzed, the study found that:  parents’ educational qualification positively predicted about 66% of career preference of senior secondary school students in Abia State, parents’ occupational background strongly and positively predicted about 23% of career preference of students and parents’ financial background strongly, positively predicted about 62% of career preference of students, significant relationship between male and female students on career preference of senior secondary school students and significant relationship exist among urban and rural students on career preference of senior secondary school students.Based on the above findings of the study, it was therefore concluded that parents’ educational qualification strongly and positively influences career preference of senior secondary school students in Abia State. It is therefore reccomended that: Counsellors should go beyond the academic field and help students to improve and understand how their perceptions of parents’ educational qualification may shape their career preference in school

The PEER GROUP INFLUENCE AND AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

The main thrust of the study was to investigate Peer Group Influence as a Correlate of Aggressive Behaviour among Secondary School Students in Abia State. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlational research design. The sample for the study consisted of 878 respondents drawn through two-stage sampling procedure from 8783 (4195 male and 4588 female) senior secondary school students in Abia State. Two instruments titled “Peer Group Influence Questionnaires” (PGIQ) and “Students Aggressive Behaviour Questionnaire” (SABQ) were developed by the researchers and used for the study. The instruments were face validated by three experts: one from Psychology, Guidance and Counselling and one expert from Measurement and Evaluation; all from the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike respectively. The stability of the instruments were determined using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient which gave reliability indices of r = .731, and r = .823 for PGIQ and SABQ respectively. Data obtained were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, Linear regression and multiple regression which revealed the following findings: Peer group influence to a positive high and significant extent correlate with aggressive behaviour. A positive but very low and no significant gender differences exist in the relationship between peer group influence and aggressive behavior of the students. Among the educational implications of the findings was that aggressive behavior depends on group influence among senior secondary school students. It was thus recommended among other that there is need for periodic exposure of senior secondary school students to seminars on peer group influence as correlates of aggressive behavior among Secondary School Students to enable them be guided by the implications the concepts of Peer Group Influence as relate to aggressive behavior

Efficacy and safety of two neutralising monoclonal antibody therapies, sotrovimab and BRII-196 plus BRII-198, for adults hospitalised with COVID-19 (TICO): a randomised controlled trial

We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of two neutralising monoclonal antibody therapies (sotrovimab [Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline] and BRII-196 plus BRII-198 [Brii Biosciences]) for adults admitted to hospital for COVID-19 (hereafter referred to as hospitalised) with COVID-19. In this multinational, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, clinical trial (Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 [TICO]), adults (aged ≥18 years) hospitalised with COVID-19 at 43 hospitals in the USA, Denmark, Switzerland, and Poland were recruited. Patients were eligible if they had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 symptoms for up to 12 days. Using a web-based application, participants were randomly assigned (2:1:2:1), stratified by trial site pharmacy, to sotrovimab 500 mg, matching placebo for sotrovimab, BRII-196 1000 mg plus BRII-198 1000 mg, or matching placebo for BRII-196 plus BRII-198, in addition to standard of care. Each study product was administered as a single dose given intravenously over 60 min. The concurrent placebo groups were pooled for analyses. The primary outcome was time to sustained clinical recovery, defined as discharge from the hospital to home and remaining at home for 14 consecutive days, up to day 90 after randomisation. Interim futility analyses were based on two seven-category ordinal outcome scales on day 5 that measured pulmonary status and extrapulmonary complications of COVID-19. The safety outcome was a composite of death, serious adverse events, incident organ failure, and serious coinfection up to day 90 after randomisation. Efficacy and safety outcomes were assessed in the modified intention-to-treat population, defined as all patients randomly assigned to treatment who started the study infusion. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04501978. Between Dec 16, 2020, and March 1, 2021, 546 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to sotrovimab (n=184), BRII-196 plus BRII-198 (n=183), or placebo (n=179), of whom 536 received part or all of their assigned study drug (sotrovimab n=182, BRII-196 plus BRII-198 n=176, or placebo n=178; median age of 60 years [IQR 50–72], 228 [43%] patients were female and 308 [57%] were male). At this point, enrolment was halted on the basis of the interim futility analysis. At day 5, neither the sotrovimab group nor the BRII-196 plus BRII-198 group had significantly higher odds of more favourable outcomes than the placebo group on either the pulmonary scale (adjusted odds ratio sotrovimab 1·07 [95% CI 0·74–1·56]; BRII-196 plus BRII-198 0·98 [95% CI 0·67–1·43]) or the pulmonary-plus complications scale (sotrovimab 1·08 [0·74–1·58]; BRII-196 plus BRII-198 1·00 [0·68–1·46]). By day 90, sustained clinical recovery was seen in 151 (85%) patients in the placebo group compared with 160 (88%) in the sotrovimab group (adjusted rate ratio 1·12 [95% CI 0·91–1·37]) and 155 (88%) in the BRII-196 plus BRII-198 group (1·08 [0·88–1·32]). The composite safety outcome up to day 90 was met by 48 (27%) patients in the placebo group, 42 (23%) in the sotrovimab group, and 45 (26%) in the BRII-196 plus BRII-198 group. 13 (7%) patients in the placebo group, 14 (8%) in the sotrovimab group, and 15 (9%) in the BRII-196 plus BRII-198 group died up to day 90. Neither sotrovimab nor BRII-196 plus BRII-198 showed efficacy for improving clinical outcomes among adults hospitalised with COVID-19. US National Institutes of Health and Operation Warp Spee