Assessing Mental Health-Related Practices of Rural and Urban Secondary School Students in Abeokuta North Local Government, Ogun State

Abstract

Mental health is crucial to adolescent’s life and mental health-related practices aid optimal performances in students.  The study investigates mental health-related practices of students in both rural and urban secondary schools. The objectives set for the study were to; Identify the preventive mental health-related practices of students in rural and urban school and determine the promotion of mental health-related practices of students in rural and urban school. A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used for the study. Multistage sampling was employed and 408 sample drawn using power analysis. The instrument used was Adolescent’s Mental Health-related Practices Questionnaire (AMHPQ). The reliability of the instrument was 0.78 using Pearson’s Moment Correlation Coefficient. Data generated was subjected to descriptive statistics and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. The study revealed that majority 79.7% were from the urban school. Urban secondary school students (3.23 ± 0.34) engaged more in preventive mental health-related practices, than the rural secondary school students (3.1 ± 0.3). The urban secondary school students (3.13 ± 0.31) engaged more in promotive mental health-related practices than the rural secondary school students (3.07 ± 0.27). The study concluded that the need to tailor parent-teachers association to meeting the mental health-related needs of the students. Government is also advised to provided services that foster mental health-related behaviour and practices