Cognitive and behavioral approaches to occupational stress management: The case of adult education administrative workers in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Those in administrative positions in adult education are more likely to suffer from stress because of the hard work they do, long hours in the office, a lack of adequate medical and welfare packages, and a lack of financial aid. In this study, adult education workers in Nigeria were assessed on the effectiveness of a cognitive and behavioral approach to managing occupational stress in public administration. METHOD: This study was a group-randomized trial in which 94 adult education workers occupy public administrative positions within Enugu State, Nigeria, participated. Data were collected using 2 instruments, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Workplace Stress Scale, which were validated by cognitive and behavioral psychologists at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The instruments contained internal construct and content validity as determined by Cronbach alpha. ANCOVA was employed to test for hypotheses and answer research questions. RESULTS: This study demonstrates that cognitive and behavioral approaches are significantly effective in managing occupational stress among adult education workers who work for public agencies. CONCLUSION: To improve stress management capacity among adults in public administration positions, researchers recommend frequent exposure to cognitive and behavioral approaches.

Developing and evaluating the impact of a small group communication programme in improving the entrepreneurial competence and economic self-efficacy of smallholder farmers with art skills.

The researchers in Study 1 conducted interviews among experts and developed a small group communication programme to be delivered in 24 months. In Study 2, a quasi-experiment was conducted involving 540 smallholder farmers in Nigeria to test the impact of the developed programme. The result showed that smallholder farmers with art skills who received the small group communication programme reported a significant improvement in their entrepreneurial competence and economic self-efficacy compared to smallholder farmers who did not receive the programme. A follow-up assessment after two years revealed the steady effectiveness of the developed programme.