The Psychosocial effects and Support Experienced by Married Women during the COVID-19 Lockdown in Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Nigeria
C. H. Joseph *
Department of Guidance and Counselling, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
F. T. Adeyemi
Department of Educational Evaluation and Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Over the past one year, Nigeria has been hit by Covid-19 which brought about lockdown. Emergency situations such as Covid-19 pandemic have caused evident and significant burden the globe and married women are not left out as they are going through undocumented and numerous psychosocial challenges. This paper examined the psycho-social effects of COVID- 19 lockdown on married women to inform policy for efficient psychosocial interventions. The study was conducted from the 25th of August 2020 to 29th of September 2020. A Google form was created and the link of the survey was circulated online via a WhatsApp group Chat. Data was collected using a questionnaire titled “The Effect of Event and Psycho-Social Support Questionnaire (IEPSQ0” which was adapted from Effect of Event–revised (IES-R) and Perceived Support Scale. The result of the study revealed that over (70%) of married women had significant (mild/moderate/severe) psychosocial effect as a result of Covid-19 lockdown. It was also found that married women did not enjoy psycho-social support during the Covid-19 lockdown. The study concludes that the COVID-19 lockdown had a significant psycho-social effect on married women. Therefore, the study recommends that mental health professionals and counsellors should endeavor to maximize the emerging technologies and social media to cater and accommodate psycho-social needs of married women.
Keywords: Psychosocial effects, COVID-19, lockdown, psychosocial supports, married-women