Assessment of psychosocial work hazards and workplace deviant behaviours of teachers in rural community-based schools.

This is a cross-sectional study that assessed the psychosocial work hazards and workplace deviant behaviours of teachers in rural community-based schools. A total of 254 primary school teachers participated in the study. Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) and Work Deviance Behaviour Scale were employed to elicit the teachers' responses. The descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage), and Pearson's correlation (r) statistical analysis were used to analyse the data. The results showed that the primary school teachers experience elements of psychosocial work hazards. It was also indicated that primary school teachers rarely exhibit work deviant behaviours. There is a significant positive relationship between psychosocial work hazards and workplace deviant behaviours of primary school teachers in Enugu State. In conclusion, it was suggested that teachers experience psychosocial work hazards and exhibit workplace deviant behaviours in primary schools in Enugu State Nigeria. Therefore, professionals in workplaces including schools should design practicable interventions that would help to reduce workplace deviance among employees in different works of life. With this, these should be reflected in decision-making and policies implementations to rural communities and beyond.

Stigmatization and discrimination as predictors of self-esteem of people living with HIV and AIDS in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Self-esteem is a major psychological health issue. People living with HIV and AIDS have been found to be victims of discrimination and stigmatization which affect their self-esteem. OBJECTIVES: The study investigated the influence of stigma and discrimination on self-esteem of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV). METHODS: The design was a cross-sectional study carried out in four teaching hospitals in south-eastern Nigeria between 13th July 2016 - 11th May 2017. Four hundred and eighty-four (174 males and 310 females) PLHIV participated in the study. Quantitative study supplemented by qualitative in-depth interviews were used to collect data regarding discrimination, stigma and self-esteem of PLHIV whilst a structured questionnaire was used to elicit information about the socio-demographic variables. RESULTS: Stigmatization and discrimination were found to have significant influence on self-esteem of PLHIV. The results indicate that stigmatization and discrimination, together with income, work status, AIDS diagnosis status, and medication use status significantly influence self-esteem of PLHIV. These results imply that stigmatization and discrimination influences on self-esteem among PLHIV. CONCLUSION: Conclusively, intervention programmes should evolve enlightenment through television, movies, and educational programs that incorporate the ill effects of discrimination and stigma so as to boost self-esteem of PLHIV.

Effect of Rational Emotive Health Therapy on Alcohol Use Among Community-dwelling, HIV-positive Patients.

BACKGROUND: Patients who have tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and who also experience alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms have worse clinical outcomes when compared with those who do not have AUD symptoms. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of rational emotive health therapy (REHT) on AUD among community-dwelling, HIV-positive patients in the Southeastern region of Nigeria. METHODS: The research design included a pretest/post-test control group with a total of 124 community-dwelling, HIV-positive patients with AUD symptoms participating in the study. The measures employed for data collection included Alcohol-related Irrational Beliefs Scale (AIBS) and Alcohol Use Disorder Scale (AUDS). Repeated measures analysis of variance was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The result obtained at the initial assessment indicated that AUD was severe. Furthermore, REHT intervention led to a significant reduction in AUD symptoms, as shown by a reduction in AUDS and AIBS scores with time in the treatment group compared to those in the waitlist control group after the intervention. Also, the effect of REHT was positively maintained in the treatment group participants at follow-up assessment. CONCLUSION: The presence of HIV symptoms alone does not cause HIV-positive patients to be dependent on alcohol; rather, irrational beliefs about the infection may contribute to unhealthy feelings and abuse of alcohol. Rational emotive health therapy is an effective approach that can be employed by therapists and health counselors in helping HIV-positive patients to think rationally about themselves and work to be able to overcome HIV-related, as well as alcohol-related, irrational beliefs.

Peer pressure and home environment as predictors of disruptive and risky sexual behaviours of secondary school adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Not much is understood about the predictive power of home environment and peer pressure on disruptive behaviour and risky sexual behaviour of adolescents. OBJECTIVES: The study investigated the predictive power of home environment and peer pressure on disruptive behaviour and risky sexual behaviour of adolescents in secondary school class two in Enugu State, Nigeria. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. METHODS: The design was a cross sectional survey of correlational study. The study was carried out in the six Education zones in Enugu State, Nigeria. The population was all the 31,680 senior secondary class two (SS11) adolescents in 285 secondary schools in Enugu State, Nigeria in 2015/2016 academic session. The instruments for data collection were an observation schedule, an interview session and a structured questionnaire of four clusters. To determine the R-squares for each regression model, a multivariate multiple regression model was conducted using "MANOVA" and "MVREG". RESULTS: This study indicates adolescents who reported their home environments to be stimulated displayed compliant behavior and none or lowered risky sexual behaviour, whilst those with chaotic and unstimulated home environment displayed disruptive behaviours. It was found that adolescents who show a heightened sensitivity to positive peer pressure demonstrated compliant and no or lowered risky sexual behavior whilst, those that are engaged with negative peer pressure strongly exhibit disruptive and risky sexual behaviour. CONCLUSION: Unstimulated home environment and negative peer group could consequently interact to predispose these adolescents to disruptive behaviour and risky sexual behaviour.