Abstract
Abstract: Background: Mental illnesses are generally characterized by a combination of abnormal thoughts, perceptions, emotions, behaviour, and relationships with others. Persons with mental illness often experience both psychological and social issues in different areas and are stigmatized in many countries and cultures. The shame and fear associated with mental illness remain substantial obstacles to help seeking, to diagnosis, and to treat worldwide.
Aims: The purpose of the study was to examine the psychosocial factors influencing the wellbeing of people living with mental illness in Abeokuta North Local Government, Ogun State
Nigeria.
Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design and stratified and proportional simple random sample was used to select 400 respondents. The study used a selfdeveloped questionnaire tagged “Psychosocial Mental Illness Scale” with reliability test score of 0.76. The demographic characteristics and research questions were analyzed using the descriptive statistics of simple percentage and frequency distribution while Pearson product correlation was used to analyze the research hypotheses at p=0.00.
Results: The results revealed that there is a significant influence of low self-esteem on wellbeing of persons living with mental illness (r = 0.611, n=400, p(0.01)<.05), also there is a significant influence of identity confusion on wellbeing of persons living with mental illness (r = 0.836, n=400, p(0.01)<.05), equally, there is a significant influence of stigmatisation on wellbeing of persons living with mental illness (r = 0.731, n=147, p(0.01)<.05) and finally, there is a significant influence of lack of access to services on wellbeing of persons living with mental illness in Abeokuta North Local Government, Ogun State (r = 0.851, n=147, p(0.01)<.05).
Conclusions: The study concluded that all the psychosocial variables like stigmatization and low self-esteem, lack of access to services and identity confusion influence the wellbeing of persons living with mental illness. Thus, the need for the government to provide services that are designed to support mentally ill persons to enhance self-efficacy, as well as other diverse attributes and roles in the community.
Key words: mental illness, psychosocial factors, low self-esteem, stigmatization, identity confusion.
