Socio-Demographics, Life Event Stressors and Psychosomatic Disorders among Public Servants in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Abstract

This study aimed at relating socio-demographics of people and their life event stressors to psychosomatic disorders or symptoms they have experienced or suffered during their day-to-day living. The respondents were 1,631 public servants systematically
sampled in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger-Delta region consisting of nine out of the thirty-six states in Nigeria. Their socio-demographics included sex, age, residence, marital status, educational and economic status. Two measuring psychometric tools used were
Holmes and Rahe’s Life Event Inventory (modified) and Omoluabi’s Psychophysiological symptoms checklist. The data generated were statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 11. The result show that stressors do cause somatic symptoms (males, r = 0.61 P < 0.05: Females, r = 0.81 P < 0.05: Age = R2 = 0.76, P < 0.05; Residence = t = 13.64, P < 0.05; Marital status = R2 = 0.67, P < 0.05; and Economic status, R2 = 0.69, P < 0.05). It was concluded that therapeutic measures should be anchored on socio-demographics in order to alleviate or eliminate psychosomatic disorders.