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The growing number of working mothers, dual career couples, and working single parents raises concerns about the impact of work stress on family lifestyles and their ability to balance work and family obligations. The aim of this study is to examine the role of social workers in promoting work-life balance among working mothers at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The cross-sectional survey design involving the mixed-methods approach was adopted for the study. A total of 604 questionnaires were distributed to the participants; of those, 99.3% (n = 596) were correctly completed and returned, 0.7% were not, and eight were selected at random for IDI. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), while frequency and percentages were used to present the data. According to the study, 83.6% of working mothers experience work-related stress. The results also showed that working mothers' stress levels depend on their level of education, the size of their family, and their income, as well as on their desire to publish in order to advance in their careers. The study concludes that, in order to reduce the stress experiences of working mothers, attention should be paid to their understanding of the stressors confronting them, while also recommending the establishment of an occupational social work office anchored by professional social workers, whose duties will be to offer professional advice on appropriate coping mechanisms to adopt while ensuring the welfare of university students and staff, particularly mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internally displaced youth and adolescents may continue to suffer from displacement-associated trauma and stress many years after initial displacement. Hence, our study initially aimed to qualitatively explore how displaced youth and adolescents in Nigeria are coping with the trauma and stress associated with protracted displacement. However, through serendipity, results from the thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews from 22 displaced youths and nine professionals in Abuja revealed that in addition to some positive coping mechanisms, some displaced young males turn to drugs, while some young women turn to transactional sex and multiple sexual partners to deal with the impact of protracted displacement. This may lead to increased crime, morbidity, and mortality, thus requiring immediate intervention. This paper concluded by recommending that social workers help displaced youth and adolescents deal with their current stressors by advocating for the improvement of their living situation while also working with other professionals to intervene on the issue of drug misuse and unhealthy sexual behaviours through continuous education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies have revealed that religious coping strategy is common among athletes due to the stressful experiences before and during competitions as part of the mental preparations they go through, the uncertainty of sporting outcomes, and other organizational issues they encounter. This research assessed the reproducibility of the Brief Religious Coping (RCOPE) instrument in an African setting using athletes' samples from different countries. Particularly, the research sought to assess the (1) factor structure of Brief RCOPE with an African sample, (2) construct validity of the RCOPE measure, and (3) measurement invariance of the RCOPE instrument based on gender and nationality. Methods: The study surveyed a convenient sample of 300 athletes, including 164 male and 136 female athletes, from 3 African countries (Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria) who participated in the 2018 West African University Games. The Brief RCOPE instrument was administered to the athletes for validation purposes before the competition. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using the ordinal factor analytic approach. Results: This validation study confirmed the two-factor dimension (positive and negative religious coping) of the Brief RCOPE measure. Further, all items for each of the dimensions of the inventory contributed significantly to the measure of the Brief RCOPE domains. The positive and negative religious coping dimensions contributed more than half of the variance of their respective indicators. Measurement invariance across gender and nationality was confirmed. Conclusion: Sufficient evidence was gathered to support the interpretation and use of the Brief RCOPE measure. Coaches and sports psychologists could adopt the Brief RCOPE measure to understand the mental or thought patterns of religious athletes based on existential concerns or stress accrued from impending competitions to inform appropriate religious coping interventions. This notwithstanding, the Minimum Clinical Important Difference (MCID) of the Brief RCOPE should be further investigated to enhance the utility of the instrument for use in intervention-based studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Cancer is often associated with a lot of pain and suffering. These suggest that coping with the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of cancer is a major life stressor that is capable of influencing patients' quality of life (QoL). Purpose The purpose of the study is to assess the relationship between cancer patients' QoL dimensions and coping strategies in the Radiotherapy Department of the University College Hospital Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods Data were collected on clinic days from all available and consenting cancer patients who were receiving treatment at the radiotherapy department. Participants were informed of their right to decline to fill the questionnaires. Result In this study, 237 cancer patients participated. They had an age range of 15 to 95 years with a mean age of 49.91 years. There was significant inverse relationship between physical well-being with behavioural disengagement, venting, planning and self-blame ( p < 0.05); social/family well-being has significant linear relationship with active coping, emotional support, positive reframing, instrumental support, acceptance and religion ( p < 0.05); emotional well-being has significant inverse relationship with behavioural disengagement and self-blame ( p < 0.05); functional well-being has significant linear relationship with active coping, instrumental support and acceptance ( p < 0.05). Conclusion It is important to assess cancer patients for the kind of coping strategies they are adopting to use in coping with their cancer burden, thereby guiding against lower QoL due to negative coping strategies. Intervention programmes could be developed to help cancer patients adopt more positive and effective coping strategies to improve patients' QoL. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out to examine the influence of parental and social environment factors on the attitude of market women towards child labour. The parental factors looked at included income, family structure, marital status, educational qualification, place of residence, while the social environment factors included techniques for coping with daily hassles, stressful life events, general health status and perceived social support. The study population was 300 market women from two major markets in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The research instrument used was a questionnaire consisting of scales on attitude towards child labour coping, stressful life events, general health and perceived social support available to market women as well as information on demographic variables. Results indicated that market women in polygamous settings, those with no education, those living in rural and semi-rural areas, as well as those with a low level of social support, all hada positively significant attitude towards child labour while market women in monogamous settings, those with education, those living in urban areas as well as those with a high level of social support, all held negatively significant attitudes towards child labour Thus factors such as level of social support, coping mechanisms, level of education, health status, level of income, and stressful life events, all had an impact on the women ~ attitude towards child labour Also, the general health status and social support available to the market women had a significant effect on their attitude towards child labour The results have implications for efforts to eliminate child labour in Nigeria, and perhaps elsewhere as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research on stress among police officers in Nigeria is limited. Most researchers have focused on the predictors of workplace stress among the police officer, and fewer still have examined their coping mechanisms. This study assessed the stress experienced and coping mechanism among police officers in Ibadan Metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study, which utilized a pretested self-administered questionnaire. The study population included 342 selected respondents using a multistage sampling technique from police stations in Ibadan North Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, χ 2 test, and Fisher's exact test at p  = .05. Results revealed that majority (92.5%) of the respondents had poor knowledge of stress with a mean knowledge of 5.4 ± 1.7. Majority (80.1%) of the respondents reported experience of stress such as feeling depressed sometimes at work, while 60.5% said that they usually have headache and body ache. In addition, 36.9% had good coping mechanism and more than half (58.8%) had a fair coping mechanism with a mean coping score of 5.0 ± 3.0. This study showed that knowledge of stressors was poor and respondents perceived that they experienced stress and its symptoms. Strategies such as training using teaching, discussion, and explanation to educate the police officers about stress and its coping mechanism and policy interventions to facilitate the construction of standard stress management centers would be appropriate strategies to reduce stress, increase the knowledge of police officers on stressors, and enhance their coping mechanism.