Social embeddedness, political and socio-economic alienation as correlates of psychological well-being among working adults in Enugu

Abstract

It has been observed that an individual’s perception of, interpersonal relationship and reactions to the political and socio economic realities in his/her environment, is fundamental to human psychological and social interaction. These feelings are germane to the psychological well-being of employees. It is against this background that the research looks into social connectedness with family and friends and the perceived alienation in political and socio-economic domains of life and examined their relationship with psychological well-being. Two hundred and forty participants were drawn from the Ministries of Education (46), Health (60), Labour (35), Sports (32), Agriculture, Water and natural resources (67). The sample was almost equally split by gender; (110) male and (130) female. The age ranged from 26 to 64years (Mean = 46.52 and SD = 7.67). 100 were single while 140 were married. 100% of the participants were of Ibo ethnic group in the South East region of Nigeria. We hypothesize that social embeddedness will positively correlate with psychological wellbeing; political alienation and socio-economic alienation will also negatively correlate with psychological wellbeing. Pearson Moment Correlation was used to analyze the data. The results showed a significant positive relationship between social embeddedness and psychological wellbeing (r = .89, P<.01, r²=.79) and negative association between political and socio-economic alienations and psychological well-being (r = -.53, P<.01, r²=.28; r = -.42, P<.01, r²=.18) respectively. It was concluded that social cohesion building programmes as a form of cognitive behavioural and existential interventions may buffer the negative relationship of alienation (political and socio-economic) to psychological well-being. Also programmes that will promote social connectedness with members of one family and his community are necessary to enhance psychological well-being