Coping Behaviour among Retirees in Anambra State: Influence of Self-Esteem and Locus of Control (Published)
The study focused on locus-of-control and self-esteem vis-à-vis retirees’ coping behaviour in Anambra State, Nigeria. The study used Ways of Coping Checklist, Index of Self-Esteem, and Nowicki-Strictland Locus-of-Control Scale; cross-sectional factorial designs; two-way ANOVA statistics, random and snow-balling samplings, 56 retirees (26 males/30 females), 60-81 years retirees’ age-range and SD=1.98. Results: Self-esteem and Locus-of-control respectively had no significant influence on the retirees’ general coping behaviour in Anambra State, Nigeria; Self-esteem and locus-of-control combined had no significant influence on the retirees’ general coping systems; Self-esteem and Locus-of-control respectively significantly influenced only the retirees’ “avoidance coping” system; Self-esteem, locus-of-control, and their combined effects contributed 98%, 98%, and 90% respectively to retirees’ “avoidance coping” system; finally, Self-esteem and Locus-of-control respectively did not significantly influence retirees’ “problem-focused coping”, “social-support seeking coping”, “self-blame coping”, and “wishful-thinking coping” elements of coping system. Recommendations: Effective coping with retirement should involve improved self-esteem, and constructive/positive locus-of-control of retirees.
Keywords: Anambra State, Nigeria, Retirees, coping-behaviour, locus of control, self-esteem
Self-Esteem, Locus of Control and Students’ Academic Underachievement in Rivers State, Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated the relationship between self-esteem, locus of control and academic underachievement among some secondary school adolescents. The study was carried out in Rivers State secondary schools. Purposive sampling techniques were used to draw a sample of 240 students identified as underachievers. Bakare’s (1977) progressive matrices adopted from Uwazurike (2008) was used to identify students with high mental ability while Basic Education Certificate Examination results of 2016 which is a cumulative record of examination and continuous assessment scores of the students’ three years in school, was used as a measure of students’ academic ability. Based on the attained mental ability performance and academic achievement of the students, the academic underachievers were identified. The various independent variables of the study were measured with a questionnaire whose reliabilities were statistically determined with Cronbach Alpha and reliability coefficients ranging from 0.51 to 0.74. The research questions were answered with mean and Pearson product moment correlation (r) while the null hypotheses were tested with special Z to determine the significance of r. It was found out that there was a very low relationship between self-esteem, internal locus of control, external locus of control and academic underachievement which showed no statistical significance. Based on the findings, three relevant recommendations were made.
Keywords: Academic, Students, Underachievement, locus of control, self-esteem