ASSESSMENT OF INFLUENCE OF INSURGENCY ON THE EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS (IDPS) IN NORTHEAST ZONE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study assessed the influence of insurgency on the emotional and mental health of internally displaced
persons in Northeast zone, Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to determine the Influence of insurgency on
emotional and mental health of internally displaced persons in North east Zone, Nigeria. Ex-post facto research
design was used for this study while the Sample size of 719 was used from the population of the study which
consists of 1,184,545 all IDPs in North east zone of Nigeria. The instrument for this study is a researcher-
developed close-ended questionnaire. Simple percentage was used to analyze the demographic characteristics
of the respondents, descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation was used to test the research questions
whereby one sample t test was used to answer the formulated hypotheses. The findings revealed that insurgency
due to insecurity significantly influence emotional health of internally displaced persons in Northeast zone,
Nigeria (t = 4.229; p = 0.00). Insecurity due to insurgency significantly influenced mental health of internally
displaced persons in Northeast zone, Nigeria (t = 6.210; p = 0.00). It was therefore concluded that insecurity due
to insurgency negatively influenced emotional and mental health of internally displaced persons in Northeast
zone, Nigeria. Hence, the study recommends that Emphasis should be made to improve the sanitary services
among the displaced persons in various camps. When people are emotionally stable all other things fall in shape.
Also, mental health of IDPs must take a center stage. IDPs are mentally unstable because they are vulnerable.