Health-Related Factors Influencing School Drop-Out Rate in Akoko North-East Local Government Arear of Ondo State.

This study investigated the health-related factors influencing school drop-out rate in Akoko North-East LGA of Ondo State. Two null hypothesis on the rate at which adolescents drop out of school for health-related reasons is not significantly higher than the rate at which they drop out for non-health related reasons. (e.g Poverty, school performance) and health-related factors responsible(Substance use/abuse, teenage pregnancy/motherhood ,Exposure to sexual harassment and communicable and non communicable disease) are not a significant factor in adolescents dropping out of school were formulated to guide the study. This study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consist of all out-of school adolescents in Akoko North-East Local Government Area, Ondo State.The sample for this study comprised of 200 out-of-school adolescents selected from Akoko North-East LGA of Ondo State. The LGA has 13 wards, from which ten were selected using simple random sampling technique. From each ward, the snowballing technique was used to select respondents. At the initial stage of snowballing sampling, the researcher established contacts with five drop-outs from each of the ten wards through friends and relatives residing in them. Each of the respondents was implored to provide information needed to locate other adolescent(s) who were also drop-outs. The follow-up yielded other sets of drop-outs who also recommended others in their category, until 200 respondents were got.  The instrument used to collect data for this study was a self-designed questionnaire. The questionnaire developed was validated by experts in the Department of Physical and Health Education who made reconstructions where necessary in order for it to measure what it was supposed to. The corrected questionnaire was used for the study. The questionnaire was administered twice to the same set of 20 school dropout adolescents who were not part of the sample for the study. There was a two week interval between the two tests. The data obtained from both tests were correlated using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient (PPMCC) to establish the strength of the relationship between the two sets of scores. The result showed that r = 0.82 which was considered reliable enough to make the questionnaire reliable. Two hundred copies of the questionnaire for this study were administered by the researcher and two of his friends who acted as research assistants and who were well taught on what to do. Respondents were contacted individually at their homes, shops motor parks and hawking locations. Administration of the questionnaire was done on the spot to ensure high rate of retrieval and completed questionnaire were collected on the spot. The data collected for this study were analysed using  percentage  and  chi-square. The result revealed that Out of 200 respondents, 156 (78%) respondents dropped out of school for health-related issues, while only 44 (22%) dropped for other reasons like financial problem, while Substance use and abuse (x2=36); Teenage pregnancy/motherhood/fatherhood (x2=36.28), Sexual harassment (13.82) and communicable diseases (x2= 32.73) are significant health-related factors influencing school dropout rate among adolescents. Consequent upon the findings, it was recommended among others, that School authorities should enact strict laws regarding sexual coercion and such laws should be strictly enforced and Schools should regularly mount counseling programmes on human sexuality to help adolescent avoid untimely sex and unwanted pregnancies and unexpected motherhood/fatherhood that can lead to dropping out of school. Key words: Education, Adolescent, School dropout and Health related issues. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/63-11 Publication date:June 30th 201

Covid-19 pandemic: Psychosocial effect among physical and health education staff in Kogi State Nigeria

Fear and anxiety have always been a negative affect in performance and job settings, especially when there are external pressures. The Corona virus-19, took the world by surprise just when everybody was enthusiastic about the long-expected year 2020. Movements were restricted, offices, businesses, and public places shut down with imposed curfews allowing only “essential workers” do their jobs. These, invariably affected the way work and associations would later become even after the lockdown. The study aimed to know whether the psychosocial effect of COVID-19 (fear and anxiety) affect physical and health education staff of Kogi State Nigeria. Descriptive survey method was adopted for the research. 200 respondents (male & female) that included physical and health education staff (350) from all higher institutions in Kogi state were part of the study. The average age of respondents was 48.5years. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) (α =.74) and the Corona Virus Anxiety Scale (α =.82) was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts, means and percentages were used to analyze data. It is concluded that physical and health education staff in Kogi State do not experience anxiety and fear due to COVID-19. A limitation encountered was most respondents feared been stigmatized with COVID as was the case at the time.  It is significant in the sense that employees are greatly influenced by the views of their employer. Further research should be on the attitude of physical and health educators in Kogi State Nigeria to work during COVID-19 pandemic

Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Social and Mental Health of ondo State Residents, Nigeria

COVID-19 is a pandemic disease which has caused fears and concerns among many people, with a significant influence on social and mental well-being. Considering this, this study investigated the impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on social and mental health of Ondo State residents, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was used in this study. Using multistage sampling technique, data were obtained through administration of questionnaire on 648 married couples with children in Ondo State. Data collected were analysed using inferential statistics. Findings revealed that respondents disclosed that their income and earnings have drastically reduced (X̄ = 2.89), feel withdrawn from community participation (X̄ = 2.96), reduced their interaction with people (X̄ = 2.98), reduced their interaction with their loved ones (X̄ = 2.67). The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the mental health of the residents indicated that majority of the respondents feel lonely due to COVID-19 lockdown (X̄ = 3.00), feel distressed (X̄ = 2.87) and agitated (X̄ = of 2.47). The study revealed a significant difference in the social and mental health of Ondo state residents based on their age and gender; F (5, 642) = 10.554, p<.05, ɳ2 =.076; F (5, 642) = 6.694, p<.05, ɳ2 =.000 respectively. Hence, the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on the social and mental health of majority of the respondents was obvious. Therefore, health education awareness raising activities on mass media should be urgently conducted with focus on how people can cope effectively with their social and mental health during this lockdown period. &nbsp

Determinants of Assault on Football League Referees during Competitions in Nigeria

The assault on referees is an act committed by an individual involved in a match such as players, substitutes, coaches, team officials or spectators against a referee that is of a violent or intimidating nature. This study, therefore, investigated the level of assault of referees in Nigeria’s Premier Football League. The participants for the study consisted of two hundred and fifty (250) Nigerian Premier League elite referees, footballers, coaches, and spectators. The purposive sampling technique was used for the study to select the respondents. Sampled used for the study was survey research design. A structured questionnaire with validated and reliability value of 0. 75 was used for data collection. The data was analyzed using the inferential statistics of Chi-square (x2) to test the research questions and hypotheses at 0.05 alpha levels. The three hypotheses of officiating, organization of the league and win at all cost tested, were all rejected. Consequently, some recommendations were made based on the findings of the study