Steven Kator Iorfa

• Master of Science
• PhD Student at University of Portsmouth

Valid measurement of meaning in life (MIL) is crucial for cross-cultural understanding of the construct. The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), a widely used measure of MIL, has yet to be translated into any indigenous African language. The current study presents a preliminary report of a Hausa language translation of the MLQ, the MLQ-Hausa versi...

In response to the global call for strategic information to understand the novel coronavirus, the dataset presented in this paper is an examination of COVID-19-related knowledge, risk perceptions and precautionary health behavior among Nigerians. The data were generated during the COVID-19 lockdown in the country through a survey distributed via an...

About a week after the confirmation of Nigeria's index case of COVID-19 on February 27, 2020, the Nigerian federal government set up a 12-member Presidential Task Force for the Control of the Coronavirus. The country's borders were closed on March 23, and the lockdown of cities was also implemented. The unanticipated disruption of scholarly or prof...

The novel coronavirus has not only brought along disruptions to daily socio-economic activities, but sickness and deaths due to its high contagion. With no widely acceptable pharmaceutical cure, the best form of prevention may be precautionary measures which will guide against infections and curb the spread of the disease. This study explored the r...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an increasingly prevalent problem in most parts of the world, including Nigeria. Very little is known about why persons who experience IPV sometimes decide to remain in the abusive relationships. In this study, we investigate whether the need for closure (NFC) may play significant roles in the association of IPV a...

The much we know about the mental health of internally displaced persons (IDPs) today comes from studies conducted with IDPs who stay in displacement camps. Little is known about IDPs’ mental health and experiences living outside the camps. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of IDPs living outside displacement camps in Nigeria. P...

This scoping review of the literature explores the interlinkages between two pressing crises: violence against children (VAC) and climate change (CC) together with environmental degradation (ED). Only recently have research and policy begun to shine a light on the magnifying effect of CC on children’s exposure to violence, exploitation, and abuse,...

Unlabelled: Understanding the use behaviours of plastic items within households is important to enable informed policy development, particularly with the emerging and developing global plastic treaty. A survey of 400 permanent residents in Portsmouth aimed to identify the general trends in single-use plastic product (SUPP) use and disposal, and th...

In populations from sub-Saharan African countries, depression is underdiagnosed and undertreated. Depressive symptoms are particularly prevalent and heterogeneous among young adults. In this study conducted among Nigerian young adults, we used computational network approaches to disclose the most central depressive symptoms and the probabilistic de...

The year 2020 will be forever associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This health crisis disrupted global interactions with countries closing borders and regions being locked down. In Morocco, according to HCP (Higher Planning Commission), 57% of all companies have stopped their activities. The most affected sectors are the hospitality industry with...

The force of science and its consequent authority on the society revolves around its provision of solutions to societal challenges. However, what happens when scientific authority is questioned and its solutions begin to seem less credible? During the COVID-19 pandemic, a public mistrust in science and the research community became exacerbated as i...

It is apparent that there are direct and indirect psychological effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria, and the residual impact on the mental wellbeing of Nigerians in the coming years will be pervasive. Yet, we pay little attention to the psychological impact of the pandemic on Nigerians.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an increasingly prevalent problem in most parts of the world including sub-Saharan Africa. However, little is known about the bonding patterns of IPV victims who decide to remain with the perpetrator despite the molestation. This study investigated the mediating role of empathy in the relationship between partner...

Vaccination is a basic public health intervention and its advancement in prevention of infectious diseases that plague humans has been evolving and helps to save humanity from extinction. This study aims to evaluate the common side effects of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and willingness to receive second dose among healthcare workers within Enugu m...

Background: Sexual violence against children is a major clinical, public health and human rights concern globally. Specifically, child sexual violence (CSV) is one of the world's leading causes of trauma in children. In extreme cases, victims of CSV grow up with a plethora of maladaptive behaviours, which may be salient in the course of growth but...

Psychoactive substance users and those having irrational beliefs tend to report more suicide ideation; however, there is paucity of research on substance use and distorted cognitions in relation to suicidality among gamblers. The possibility of a moderated mediation model has not been examined. This study examines substance use as a mechanism expla...

Evidence has shown that symptoms of grief co-occur with posttraumatic growth following loss. Using latent class analysis among a Togolese sample of middle-aged/older widowed persons, we identified three classes along their experiences of grief-growth interaction (combined grief/growth, predominantly growth, and low-medium growth classes). The combi...

Existing literature has documented strong associations between families’ socio-economic conditions and children’s experiences of child abuse and neglect (CAN), including physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Even though the broader approach to family poverty and child poverty may overlap, they do not always have the same indices, implying that the...

Since COVID-19 currently has no proven cure but high morbidity and mortality; many people are living in fear of the virus along with other mental health challenges induced by the lockdowns and social distancing. Hence, this study aims to provide evidence on the co-occurrence and inter-relations between the fear of COVID-19, post-traumatic stress sy...

Objective The fear of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected a wide range of health-related attitudes and behaviours worldwide. However, within an African population, it is not clear how the fear of the COVID-19 pandemic may be particularly important for formulating public health policies and their consequent implementation. As a first step, it is impo...

We sought to validate the Centrality of Event Scale (CES) in a Nigerian clinical sample of people living with HIV/ ADS. Our sample consisted of 869 people living with HIV/AIDS. They completed the CES, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual version 5 (DSM-5), and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventor...

Substantial evidence indicates that adolescents and young adults have a disproportionately high incidence of most forms of violence, including suicide. Suicidality often includes suicidal ideation. The present study examined the relationship between bullying and suicidal ideation, and further tested whether social support moderates the association...

Recent trends in grief research have been exploring how symptoms of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) and depression co-occur in bereaved individuals using Latent Class Analysis (LCA). However, the PGD criteria have kept undergoing changes and the newest DSM-5 PGD criteria have not been captured in these studies. Also, previous LCA-grief studies have...

Background COVID-19 peritraumatic distress (CPD), an emerging trauma-related psychopathology, involves immediate physiological arousal as well as emotional and cognitive responses to the threat of the COVID-19 outbreak. This study examined the prevalence of and temporal changes in CPD, its early and follow-up predictors and the extent to which it w...

Since the revision of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-20-R), few studies have examined its validity and none yet its gender invariance. This study addressed these critical issues among 502 Nigerian university students (50.4% of females, Mage = 22.10 years). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) demonstrated that a one-, tw...

Introduction: The present study investigated the COVID-19-induced anxiety and Covid-19 precautionary measures as predictors of mental wellbeing of Nigerians during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: By using a cross-sectional design methodology, 340 participants (58.2% males and 41.8% females) were selected through the snowball sampling technique. T...

Background: Tramadol is a priority opioid in Nigeria given its widespread use. The enhancement of sexual experience is commonly identified as a driver of tramadol use. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with substance use and other high-risk behaviors such as sexual-risk behaviors. In the current study, we examined how the pathway...

Over-integration of HIV-related trauma into the client’s memory in a negative emotional valence could be a serious health debilitating process which may result in negative post-traumatic health outcomes, affecting health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of people living with HIV (PLWH). We hypothesized that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symp...

Burgeoning research has begun to question what the actual value for life is among drug using individuals. Why do they engage in acts they know undermine the quality and length of their lives? Can the use of drugs be directly linked to lack of value for their lives? Or does the repeated use of drugs make them value less their lives? What if, regardl...

About a week after the confirmation of Nigeria’s index case of COVID-19 on February 27, 2020, the Nigerian federal government set up a 12-member Presidential Task Force for the Control of the Coronavirus. The country’s borders were closed on March 23, and the lockdown of cities was also implemented. The unanticipated disruption of scholarly or prof...

Introduction: Individuals who have knowledge of an infectious disease and also perceive the risks associated with such infectious disease tend to engage more in precautionary behaviour; however, little is known about this association as it relates to the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). There is possibility of moderated mediation effect in the associa...

Background: Research on psychopathy has largely been skewed towards examining the roles of psychopathy in antisocial or offending behaviour. There are however, indications that psychopathic traits may support adaptive lifestyles and survival abilities in non-clinical samples. Method: We sought to determine the association of psychopathic traits wit...

This study assessed knowledge and perceptions about COVID-19 among the general public in Nigeria during the initial week of the pandemic lockdown in the country. From March 28 to April 4, 2020, this cross-sectional survey used an anonymous online questionnaire to collect data from respondents within Nigeria. Purposive and snowball sampling techniqu...

This study assessed knowledge and perceptions about COVID-19 among the general public in Nigeria during the initial week of the pandemic lockdown in the country. From March 28 to April 4, 2020, this cross-sectional survey used an anonymous online questionnaire to collect data from respondents within Nigeria. Purposive and snowball sampling techniqu...

This study assessed knowledge and perceptions about COVID-19 among the general public in Nigeria during the initial week of the pandemic lockdown in the country. From March 28 to April 4, 2020, this cross-sectional survey used an anonymous online questionnaire to collect data from respondents within Nigeria. Purposive and snowball sampling techniqu...

Abstract This study assessed knowledge and perceptions about COVID-19 among the general public in Nigeria during the initial week of the pandemic lockdown in the country. From March 28 to April 4, 2020, this cross-sectional survey used an anonymous online questionnaire to collect data from respondents within Nigeria. Purposive and snowball sampling...

Schizophrenic symptoms have often been associated with antisocial behaviours (ASBs). Most studies have focused on violence. The association between schizophrenia and violence is often confounded by socio demographic characteristics of patients. Overemphasis on diagnosis, rather than traits, and the traditional focus on violence may have obscured as...

All around the globe, the incidence of violence and deaths is on the toll. Wars, ethnic and religious clashes, terrorism, kidnapping, ritual killings and climate change induced disasters are the leading causes of deaths. Levels of tolerance across cultures and religions have greatly decreased and violence has risen to its peak. This turn of events...

Global studies on sexuality and sexual orientations have shown that young persons' attitudes and orientations towards sexuality differ from their parents largely due to generational shifts. For instance, the acceptance of same sex relations and premarital sex have risen significantly form the 1970s to the present; research reports this increase to...

The study investigated personality and alcohol expectancies as predictors of alcohol use among undergraduates. A total of 300 undergraduate (including 200 (66.7%) males and 100 (33.3%) females) who were sampled with probability technique from the Makurdi Campus of the Benue State University, Makurdi participated in the study. They responded to the...

Recent trends of heightened violence in societies across the world have given rise to renewed interests by scholars across disciplines in research on peace, conflict, tolerance and other violence- related concepts. Levels of tolerance across cultures and religions have also greatly decreased and this turn of events has necessitated inquiry into the...

In most cultures, street children are excluded from main stream society and do not only lack access to basic amenities but are often discriminated against and abused by others. These experiences may well precipitate into psychological distresses which are not common among normal children and may in adulthood, be responsible for the development of s...

Child abuse and neglect (CAN) has become one of the world's most leading sources of cumulative trauma in children. In more extreme cases, children who are victims of CAN grow up with a wide range of maladaptive behaviors which may be salient in the course of growth but later present in adulthood as severe cases of comorbid psychopathologies. It is...

The complexity of health care service is such that no one healthcare professional alone may correctly offer diagnosis and prognosis for a particular patient. Often times, a patient is passed on from one professional to another in an attempt to understand the cause and nature of an ailment and as well offer treatment and care. This demands that heal...

Academic dishonesty (AD) is a growing concern among students at all levels. It is an antisocial behavior that may begin at elementary school, go on through college and even up unto the post-doctoral levels of academic study. AD is a wide spectrum encompassing behaviors such as bribery, cheating, deception, fabrication, impersonation, plagiarism, et...

The study investigated the correlates (hardiness and self-esteem) of academic engagement among secondary school students. Three hundred and forty-four (344) participants consisting of 166 males and 178 females were sampled from secondary schools in Nsukka, Enugu state, Nigeria. Their age ranged from 13 to 21 years, with a mean age of 15.95 years. A...

The harmonious reciprocal relationship between humans and their natural environment has been greatly disturbed of recent. As human beings persistently exploit nature's resources with little efforts at replenishing it, there seems to be a revolt from nature's end. Hence the increasing rates of natural disasters and communal violence. The disasters a...

This study examined the contributions of climate change awareness and pro-environmental behaviour in subjective wellbeing (SWB) of university students. Respondents were 435 students (female =198, male =237), selected from University of Nigeria (Nsukka and Enugu campuses). The average respondent’s age was 21.48 years (SD = 3.54) ranging from 16 to 3...

The rising levels of drug abuse among youths in the world require evidence-based, cost effective and research-informed intervention strategies. These strategies will need to be formulated around observed socio-demographic and psychosocial characteristics of youths who abuse drugs. This paper presents reports of two studies which investigated the ro...

The rising levels of drug abuse among youths in the world requires evidence-based, cost effective and research-informed intervention strategies. These strategies will need to be formulated around observed socio-demographic and psychosocial characteristics of youths who abuse drugs. This paper presents reports of two studies which investigated the r...

The relationship between parenting style, religiosity and antisocial behavior (ASB) was investigated in this study. Participants were 228 (120 males and 108 females) undergraduates. Participants’ age ranged from 16 to 20 years (M = 18.9 years). They responded to the ASB scale, Parental authority questionnaire and centrality of religiosity scale. Th...

Existing literature have documented the strong association between families’ socio-economic conditions and the chances of their children experiencing various types of child abuse and neglect (CAN), including physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse. Even though the broader approach to family poverty and child poverty may overlap, they do no...

The society is plagued with numerous vices of which violence in varying forms (terrorism, human trafficking, ritual killings, ethnic cleansing, etc) has become the most alarming. This trend has persistently skyrocketed within the last two decades and there appears to be no indication that this might nosedive any time soon. This has implications on...

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a brief and simple self-report measure of anxiety and depression. Unlike other measures, HADS efficiently assesses anxiety and depressive symptoms independent of symptoms of physical illness. Although it was developed for general medical conditions, it has been found useful in other populations. O...

The lack of intimacy among young adults has been shown to have effects on social withdrawal, lack of self-confidence or trust, inability to take control of any situation and the inability to make or sustain meaningful relationships. In more severe cases, loneliness has been linked to depression, aggression and hostility. These negative attributes c...

This study examined the associations of extraversion, neuroticism, and connectedness to nature with thriving in adolescence and early adulthood. In addition, the study also tested the hypothesis that connectedness to nature moderates the relationship between the two personality facets and thriving. Two hundred and two participants aged 13-20 years...

Consideration of future consequences (CFC) as a personality trait is relatively unexplored but yet has many implications across various facets of behaviour including environmental and health behaviours. This study examined the possible association between connectedness to nature and CFC among 467 university undergraduate students of a university in...

This study investigated the influence of altruistic models and gender on prosocial behavior among secondary school students. Forty students from a secondary school in Nsukka (50% male) were randomly selected to participate in the study. The data were collected by means of test performance score derived from self-report helping test. Participants’ s...

The study investigated psychoticism, peer conformity and social alienation as predictors of adolescents’ substance abuse. Two hundred and ninety three (53% males) secondary school students with mean age of 16.43 (SD= 1.8) participated in the study. The Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST), the EPQ-R Short Form, the Peer Conformity Scale (PCS) and the S...

Global studies on sexuality and sexual orientations have shown that young persons’ attitudes and orientations towards sexuality differ from their parents’ largely due to generational shifts. For instance, the acceptance of same sex relations and premarital sex have risen significantly since the 1970s to the present; research reports this increase t...

Married women represent a special population who do not only ensure the continuity of humans but also play important roles in child upbringing. However , the increasing rate of violence globally has enlisted them among the most vulnerable groups in the society. In times of violence, they are the most prone to become victims along with children. At...

This study argues that the awareness and acceptance of climate change (CC) is key to environmental resource management. CC awareness encompasses the totality of the general knowledge about the phenomenon, its causes, consequences and mitigation possibilities. The study reports the use of the Multi-dimensional Climate Change Awareness Questionnaire...

Loneliness in young adults has been shown to have effects on social withdrawal, lack of self-confidence, inability to take control of any situation and the inability to make or sustain meaningful relationships. In more severe cases, loneliness has been linked to depression, aggression and hostility. These negative attributes could have implications...

This study examined the contributions of climate change awareness and pro-environmental behaviour in subjective wellbeing of university students. Respondents were 435 students (female =198, male =237), selected from University of Nigeria (Nsukka and Enugu campuses). The average respondent age was 21.48 years (SD = 3.54) ranging from 16 to 38 years....

Climate change has been a complex emergency for the past 20 years. While much of the unprecedented destructions on the physical and economic environment that are wrought by the variability in climate are given reasonable attention by scholars/environmentalists and government, its impact on mental health is often unrecognised, especially in developi...

One of the most significant impacts of climate change is the worsening wave of disasters associated with climate change. Disaster resilience is increasingly recognised and adopted by institutions, professionals, and individuals around the world in meeting the challenges of such hazardous events. However, the major attention to disaster resilience c...

Performance appraisal as one of the basic issues in personnel psychology and other management sciences is the footing of this work. A full exploration of the concept has been provided with particular reference to the Nigerian society. The criticisms, merits, demerits, problems and proffered solutions are found here in this work. The paper sees perf...