STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING THE PRACTICES ADOPTED BY FAMILIES IN COPING WITH SELECTED FAMILY CRISES IN KADUNA STATE

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to investigate on strategies for improving the practices

adopted by families in coping with selected family crises (of unemployment and death of head of the family)in Kaduna State. Specifically, the study identified the challenges arising

from unemployment and death of heads of the family; determined the coping strategies

which families could adopt; determined constraints that hinder the adoption of the coping strategies and ways families could improve their coping strategies. Survey research design

was used. The questionnaire was used for data collection, which was validated by three

lectures from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.    The study was guided by four research questions and four hypotheses which were tested at 0.05 level of significance. In order to

establish the reliability of the instrument 30 questionnaire were distributed to 30 heads of families in Plateau state, Jos North. Cronbach Alpha reliability test was used to test the

internal consistency of the instrument, reliability coefficients of 0.82, 0.97, 0.89, 0.87, for

each section and an overall of 0.88 was obtained. Questionnaire, free responses (open ended questions) and focus group discussion were used to collect data for the study. One thousand

three hundred and fifty sets of questionnaire were administered by hand to heads of families

(male or females, who are bread winners).Only 1203 copies were completed, and retrieved. It was 89.1 percent retrieval. A total number of 3 Focus Group Discussions was conducted,

one session in each Local Government Area. The data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for research questions, while t-test was used to test hypotheses and

percentage was used for free responses. The findings revealed that; 60 challenges arises

from unemployment of heads of family, 66 challenges in death of the heads of family, 38 and

40 coping practices which families could adopt in coping with challenges arising from unemployment and  death  of  heads  of    families  respectively,15  and  19  hindrances  on

adoption  of   coping  strategies  in  unemployment  and  death     of   heads  of   families respectively,60 and 66 ways of improving coping strategies in challenges of  unemployment

and death of heads of families respectively.  (i) There was no significant difference in the mean responses of male and female heads of families on the challenges arising from crises

of unemployment and death of head of families. (ii)There was significant difference between

the responses of family heads who resides in urban and rural areas on coping practices which  families  could  adopt  during  crises  of  unemployment  and  death  of  heads  of

families.(iii) There was no significant difference in the mean responses of family heads of nuclear and polygamous families on constraint that could hinder the adoption of coping

strategies by the families during unemployment of heads of family but there was significant

difference in the constraints that could hinder the adoption of coping strategies during crisis of death of head of families .There was significant difference in the mean responses of

literate and non-literate family heads on ways which heads of families could be helped to

improve their coping strategies in dealing with challenges of unemployment and death of family heads. Based on these findings, some recommendations were made. These include

Heads of family and members must: (1) Learn to plan budget, control spending and keep savings account, (2) Follow decision making processes step by step in crises situations, (3)

Learn to plan towards having a personal house. (4) curriculum experts should introduce

skills, knowledge and attitude needed for self employment and coping in crisis of death of heads  of  family  (5)  government  and  non-government  organization  concerned  should

organize training, seminars, workshops and short courses, and equip family on strategies for

copings with crises of unemployment and death of heads of families both at federal, state and local government levels.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The head of the family is the standard building block of a family; and anything that affects this  building block negatively or positively has a direct  bearing on the  family. Lamanna and Reidman (2003) viewed family as any sexually expressive or parent-child or other kin relationship in which people are usually related by ancestry, marriage or adoption and they form an economic unit and care for the young ones. A family is made up of a group of people that reside together and are related by blood or adoption and members share food, shelter, joy and crises together. When a family cannot meet the needs of its members it is dysfunctional. In a dysfunctional family, problems tend to be chronic due to lack of adequate resources. There are two main types of family in Nigeria. They are nuclear and polygamous families. The nuclear family is the simplest; which is made up of the husband, a wife and their offspring (Kendal 1995), while the polygamous family is made up of a husband, his wives and children (Githinji 2011). The head of the family is often a male or maybe a female in the case of widowhood, separation or singleness by choice.  No matter whom the head of the family is, when family crises occur and the head of the family is affected, members may not be able to play their roles any longer.

Family crises are situations that mark turning points in a family. Such situations include  illness,  conflicts  in  in-law  relationships,  separation  and  divorce,  adolescent problems,  differing  standards  and  rules,  relocation  of  a  family,  domestic  violence, alcoholism, unemployment, or loss of job, accident, death or loss of family member (Anyakoha and Eluwa, 2010). Family crises are events that occur when the steady state of

family functioning is disorganized due to problems that are above the coping capacity of the family. During crises things cease to go on as usual. The normal family functioning is disrupted and members experience changes; various forms of challenges and different forms of conflicts may arise. Robert (2000) noted that crises put family in disequilibrium and decreased functioning because of the effects of the stressful situations.

The effects of family crises include among others; nightmares, confusion, fears, and expression of anger by family members towards themselves or at other people. Family members may experience breakdown in communication, loss of trust and confidence in themselves and other people; also unpredictable behaviours or reaction may be exhibited by members (Queenland Government, 2010). Challenges of finance, housing, health, family relationship, children welfare, decision making and feeling of insecurity may also occur. Family crises therefore pose various forms of challenges which necessitate various forms of adjustments and coping strategies (Robert, 2000; Mccubbin and Mccubbin, 1993).  Noreuil (2000)  noted  that  when  families  experience  identical  crises  stimuli,  there  are  often differences in the way families cope or react to the crises stimuli. Success in coping with family crises depends to a large extent on the strategies or practices adopted by a family.

Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. It is an important feature that can be adopted to promote effectiveness and bring solution to any area of difficulty in organizations, groups and the family ( Lemo, 2004).While improvement is a process of making something better than before (Pearson, 2007). If something improves, that thing or situation gets better (Sinclair, Fox and Bullon 1992).

In crises situations, strategies adopted often depend on the nature of the crises and availability of resources. Coping is a cognitive behavioural effort used to manage specific

demands that may be tasking or exceeding the resources of the individual or the family at a given time, while practices entail making series of informed decisions and acting on the decisions (Burr and Klien, 1994).

Every family either in the urban or rural community is expected to use some coping practices  to  manage  crises  in  order  for  the  entire  family  system  to  survive.  Urban communities in Nigeria are characterized by population density as well as the availability of some facilities like electricity, pipe borne water supply, modern blocks made from cement, well tarred roads,  good  housing,  transportation and  feeding; while  rural areas  are  less populated and have less facilities for the use of the family (National Population Bureau,

2008). Whether in urban or rural communities, families still face different types of crises.

In each case different coping practices could be adopted by the family. The coping practices  of  families  in  crises  situations  involve  the  use  of  cohesion,  adaptability and communication, (Olson, Russell and Sprenkle, 2007). Other coping practices include: intimacy, acceptance, avoidance, the use of cognitive distractions and religious or spiritual supports. (Lauer and Lauer, 1997).

Family cohesion is described as the emotional togetherness and not separateness of members of the family (Olson, and Hamilton, 1983; Hetherington and Kelly, 2002). This helps a great deal in resolving crisis in the family. Adaptability (flexibility) is the capability of the family system to change when crises require it. It is the measurement of the degree to which the family tolerates change and the extent to which it requires stability which often results  from  effective  communication (Eaton,  Davis,  Hammond,  Condon,  and  McGee,

2011). Communication according to Eaton, et al, (2011) is a coping strategy that family members use to share information about their thoughts and feelings. Communicating with

family members is considered to be an emotion-focused coping strategy and may be carried out through verbal or written contact that promotes intimacy among family members in crisis. Intimacy is a state of having a close personal relationship with someone. It plays a vital role in family cohesion and in the development of relationships for members of the family (Adebayo and Ogunleye, 2010).

Acceptance is another coping practice that family members may utilize in order to cope in time of crisis. Many family members perceive their situation as uncontrollable, and something  they  must  deal  with,  and  move  on.  McCubbin,  Olson  and  Larsen  (1991) submitted that family members who use acceptance see their situation as not negative, but as a part of their everyday life. Incorporating acceptance in their life helps to reduce stress and improve their relationship with family members. Avoidance is a behaviour that limits exposure to distressing situations. It is a way of avoiding uncomfortable issues or situations. Avoidance may include removing oneself physically from a situation or refusing to discuss or even think about the issue or situation (McCubbin, et al, 1991). The use of cognitive distraction is noted to be an emotion-focused coping strategy, which includes passive appraisal. Lazarus and Folkman (1987) reported that cognitive distraction is the mental process  of distraction.  The  authors  further  reported that  it  limits  attention  or  prevents concentration on the crisis situation. It can also be something that distracts the mind from thinking about stressful situations and limits reactivity (Eaton, et al, 2011)

Families use religious and spiritual support as a means for coping with crisis in the family. Spirituality includes seeking advice from a minister, attending and participating in church services, and  having  faith  in  God  (Eaton,  et  al,  2011). The  use  of spirituality according to National Alliance on Mental Illness, (2010) is seen as a positive emotion-

focused coping strategy during crisis. Spirituality may mean different things to different individuals, but has been seen to increase levels of well-being and decrease cases of crisis among families (Rammohan, Rao and Subbakrishna, 2002).The coping practices during crises  of  unemployment  for  example,  entail  a  review  of  family  goals,  searching  for alternative employment, and taking up new responsibilities (Anyankoha and Eluwa 2010). Coping practices also entail seeking knowledge about the crises and reframing the situation where  possible. The  coping  practices  of a  family  during crises  may  be  influenced  by educational background of members of the family, income of the family, the sex of the head of the family, residential location of family either in urban or rural area, culture, religion and others. With these coping practices, families still experience the adverse effects of family crises. Ways in which families could be helped to improve their coping strategies are the improvement strategies which enhance the coping practices of the families during crises of unemployment and death of the heads of the families.

The observed high cases of ulcer, insomnia, depression, psychiatric problems and maladaptive behaviors like excessive consumption of alcohol, smoking and substance abuse, divorce or separation experienced among families could be due to poor coping capabilities during crises (Flannery, 1998; Lauer and Lauer, 1997). Several studies have revealed the adverse effects of dysfunctional families which may be due to family crises on children and spouse (Amato and Booth, 1991). Dysfunctional families have been noted by Adebayo and Ogunleye (2010) to have a tendency to produce psychopathic personalities in children and other members of the family. Dysfunctional families are those families that do not have resources for coping during crisis.

This study focused mainly on crises of unemployment and death of the head of the family.  Unemployment  is  a  situation  where  the  economically  active  populations  are available for work but without work, including people who lost jobs (World Bank 1998). Despite all efforts of the Federal and Kaduna State government to reduce the crisis of unemployment through monumental programmes like that of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMES) for example; various independent estimates still put the unemployment rate at more than 30 percent of the labour force (Federal Bureau of Statistics 2008).   With this high rate of unemployment, poverty results, and the survival of the family units are threatened (Dike, 2004).

Many Nigerians remain unemployed because they were not taught the culture of self- employment, and therefore they go seeking white collar jobs upon the completion of their academic pursuits or when they lose their jobs (Ijewere,1999). Unemployment of the head of family is a big challenge to the family, while the death of the head is even a more severe situation.

Death  is  a  phenomenon which  commonly results  from predation,  malnutrition, disease, and accidents or intentional trauma resulting in terminal injury of man (World Health Organization, 2009). World Bank Report (2003) indicated that life expectancy of Nigerians is 46years. This is a clear indication that mortality rate is also high.  The death of husbands, who in most cases are the breadwinners, exposes wives and their children to ill treatments of relatives.  In most cases relatives withhold resources, such as money for food, school fees, clothing, housing and other household materials.  The result of this is extreme economic dislocation for the family of the deceased (Appiah and Cusack, 1999).

When death of the head of a family occurs, it makes the members bereaved and the spouse of the deceased widow or widower in the case of a married person. A widow or widower is a woman or man who survives the spouse and has not remarried (Oniye 2000). Crisis of death require special coping practices such that other family members take responsibilities for  things they  were  not  doing  prior  to  the  event.  Each member  must participate in the events of the funeral. Members of a family are expected to spend more time together and could modify or change family goals. At such a time the economic condition of the family can create financial handicap for the family (Eaton et al, 2011).  Unemployment and death of head of the family are major sources of family crises especially when not properly managed. Based on the  above  assertion, there  is  need to  improve the  coping practices of families so that the family system can survive.

Statement of the Problem

Crises occur in families and result to disequilibrium which could lead to family instability and dysfunction if not properly handled through the application of appropriate coping practices. Today in Nigeria including Kaduna state, the family faces numerous crises, but the unemployment of family head, and death of loved ones, especially that of the bread winner pose special challenges. Crisis of unemployment is a common phenomenon in the society right now and could happen to anybody at any time. Due to the economic condition of the nation; most establishments are down-sizing their staff from time to time.  It is one of the greatest challenges facing the heads of the family recently. When the head of the family becomes unemployed the whole family experiences severe economic shock which could lead to poverty, poor feeding habits, poor nutritional status of family members, ill health, in some cases family instability and so on. Unemployment thus poses serious challenges to the

survival of families, while death is another crisis that poses a greater challenge on the family and many lack appropriate coping mechanism.

Death is a crisis that is irreversible. People are more afraid of it especially when it involves the head of the family. The situation is so bad that members of the family do not like to think of it nor discuss it but hope to escape it through faith in God, even when they know death is inevitable. Families do not also get prepared for it; but when death takes its toll on the head of family; the members experience grief, fear, confusion, financial problems, and shock among others.

Unfortunately most families in Nigeria have inadequate knowledge and lack up-to- date information on how to cope with these crises (WHO, 2009); the case of families in Kaduna State is not an exception as unemployment rate is on the increase. These effects and experiences of crises among families make it imperative to make information on coping strategies available to families for better livelihood in Nigeria in general and Kaduna State in particular.

Families  suffer  when  the  bread  winner  or  the  head  loses  his  job,  becomes unemployed; and worse still when the head dies. At such times, the family needs various coping strategies to make necessary adjustments and move ahead. Often, family members neither know nor adopt these coping strategies since they were not learnt before the crises occur. Also, no two families are the same; they may have different ways of coping and different ways of reacting to the crises stimuli.

The crises of unemployment and death of heads of the family, along with their effects on the family is obvious and the coping practises seem not to be working since the adverse effect of the crises persist. This, therefore, means that the coping practices that families had

been using are not effective. There is therefore, the need to improve on these practices. This in turn calls for evolving strategies which families can adopt in crises of unemployment and death of the head of the family.

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the strategies for improving the practices adopted by families in coping with challenges of selected family crises (unemployment and death) in Kaduna state. Specifically the study sought to:

1.  identify the challenges arising from unemployment and death of the head of the family.

2.  determine the coping strategies which families could adopt in dealing with challenges of unemployment and death of the head of the family.

3.    determine the constraints that could hinder the adoption of coping strategies by families during crises of unemployment and death of the head of family.

4.  determine ways the families could be helped to improve their coping strategies for dealing with challenges of unemployment and death of the head of the family.

Significance of the Study

Family is a dynamic institution; and therefore subject to challenges and crisis. When families are equipped with required skills, resources and strategies; they are better positioned to cope with the challenges and crisis that may erupt such as loss of jobs, unemployment, illness and death of any of the family members. Therefore, identification of the required coping strategies during crisis is the major focus of this study.

The findings of this study will be beneficial to families, Federal and State Ministries of

Women Affairs and Youth development, religious leaders, curriculum planners, teachers of

Home Economics at all levels, and researchers with special interest in family crisis and management.

The findings of this study will reveal the challenges arising from crises of unemployment and death of heads of families. The coping strategies that will help families cope effectively with family crises of unemployment and death of heads of families could also be taught through seminars, workshops, and conferences to the families. The findings of the study will help to enhance the adoptions of the strategies among families; and by so doing build equilibrium in the family system during crises situations. This can be achieved through the teaching of the coping strategies by religious leaders.

The findings of this study will provide relevant information to the Federal and State Ministries of Women Affairs and Youth Development on challenges, constraints and ways of improving the coping strategies resulting from unemployment and death of heads of families as this will help in the formulation of policies that are not only family based but family crisis sensitive. This will further help families in the study area to comfortably cope with the overriding crisis among families in the area if they are able to implement the coping strategies.

It will also be relevant to Home Economics teachers and lecturers who are experts in the field of family relationships and Home Management. The findings on the challenges, constraints to adoption of strategies, and coping practices will further equip them with relevant information and knowledge they can impact on their students for better attitude and good moral conducts that can help in cases of crises of unemployment and death of the head of the family.

The findings of the study will also be of great benefit to curriculum planners by providing relevant information for curriculum review and update to meet societal needs most especially in the area of addressing the alarming crises of unemployment and death of head of family the challenges, constraints to adoption of strategies and ways of improving coping strategies.  The findings would also provide useful resource materials to Home Economics organizations, university libraries and other researchers. For instance, researchers in academics could  use  the  information as a  benchmark  for  further  studies  in relation to strategies for enhancing family coping capacities in periods of crisis.

Research Questions

The following research questions guided this study:

1.  What are the challenges arising from crises of unemployment and death of the head of the family?

2.  What are the coping strategies which families could adopt in coping with crises of unemployment and death of the head of the family?

3.  What  are the constraints that  could hinder the  adoption of coping strategies by families during the crises of unemployment and death of the head of the family?

4.  What are the ways through which families could be helped to improve their coping strategies for dealing with challenges of unemployment and death of the head of the family?

Hypotheses

The study tested the following HOS

Hol: There is no significant difference between the Mean responses of male and female heads of family on the challenges arising from crises of unemployment and death of the head of the family.

Ho2: There is no significant difference in the Mean responses of family heads that are resident in urban and rural areas on the coping strategies which families could adopt during the crises of unemployment and death of the head of the family.

Ho3:  There  is  no  significant  difference  in  the  Mean  responses of  family  heads  of nuclear or polygamous families on the constraints that could hinder the adoption of coping strategies in unemployment and death of head of the family.

Ho4: There is no significant difference in the Mean responses of literate and non literate family heads on the ways through which families could be helped to adopt strategies for coping with unemployment and death of head of the family.

Scope of the Study

The study focused on strategies for improving the practices adopted by families in coping with selected family crises in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study was de-limited to challenges arising from selected crises of unemployment and death of head of the family, the specific coping practices which families could adopt in coping with challenges of unemployment and death of the head of the family, the constraints that could hinder the adoption of coping strategies by family and ways through which families could be helped to improve the coping strategies during crises of unemployment and death of head of the family.

The geographical scope of the study was Kaduna State. It is imperative to state that the study covered families in Kaduna state only.   The study also covered all the three senatorial zones in the state.  Three local government areas from each of the three senatorial zones were selected making a total of nine local government areas of the state and a total of fifty four communities from where family heads for the study were selected.

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