‘It Feels Like I Am Weighed Down By Societal Demands’: A Mixed Method Study of Gender Norm Attitudes and Psychological Wellbeing in a Sample of Nigerian Youths

Abstract

The association between gender norm attitudes and psychological wellbeing (PWB) has been a major area of gender and health studies that is observed to be scanty in African literature, with the few related studies that exist often adopting quantitative methods only. Thus, to expand the methodology and findings of these few existing related studies, a mixed method research was used to study the association between gender norm attitudes outcomes (egalitarian & traditional) and PWB in a sample of Nigerian youths selected from the six (6) geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The total participants (i.e. quantitative plus qualitative study) were 303 purposively sampled youths, who were members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The mean age = 25.52 years (SD = 3.02) for quantitative study participants, and mean age = 27.2 years (SD = 3.01) for qualitative study participants. Data were collected using standardized questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Conclusively, it was drawn from the findings that, although traditional gender norms seemed to enhance PWB more than egalitarian gender norms in the qualitative study, surprisingly there were some adverse effects of traditional gender norms which participants may be unaware of that was affecting their PWB as revealed in the quantitative study. Interventions that promotes gender equality should be embarked on.