Psychological empowerment and engagement in income generating activities among rural women in Yobe State, Nigeria
Psychological empowerment in this study refers to rural women’s experience of intrinsic motivation that is based on the cognitions in relation to their roles in income generating activities. There are four dimensions of psychological empowerment namely, meaningful, self-determination, competen...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/69453/1/IPSS%202018%202%20-%20IR.pdf |
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| Summary: | Psychological empowerment in this study refers to rural women’s experience of
intrinsic motivation that is based on the cognitions in relation to their roles in income
generating activities. There are four dimensions of psychological empowerment
namely, meaningful, self-determination, competence and impact. Previous studies
have shown a significant relationship between psychological empowerment and
engagement. Nevertheless most of the previous literature did not consider the
dimensions of psychological empowerment and engagement relationships especially
in an informal setting. To bridge this gap, this study focused on examining the
psychological empowerment and engagement in income generating activities among
rural women in Yobe state, Nigeria.
A model was developed based on self-determination theory, conservation of
resources (COR) theory and previous studies. The objectives of this study are to
examine the levels of psychological empowerment and engagement in income
generating activities as well as to determine the extent to which psychological
empowerment (meaningfulness, self-determination, competence, and impact)
predicts engagement. In addition, the study also examined the moderating effect of
family life stage on the relationship between psychological empowerment and
engagement.
A sample of 262 rural women were surveyed. Simple random sampling technique
was used to select the sample consisting of participants of income generating
activities in Damaturu, Yobe state, Nigeria. Data were gathered using of structured
questionnaire adapted from previous studies. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS (version 22.0) while Structural
Equation Modeling (SEM-AMOS) was used to determine the moderating effect of
family life stage on the relationship of psychological empowerment and engagement.
The result from the descriptive analysis show that the rural women experience
moderate level of psychological empowerment and high level of engagement in
income generating activities. Additionally, the results from SEM indicates a
significant contribution (42%) of psychological empowerment to engagement, and
family life stage moderates the relationship between psychological empowerment
and engagement. moreover, the result from SEM indicate that the standardized path
coefficient were consistent with the hypothesis indicating a significant contribution
of psychological empowerment to engagement based on the goodness-of-fit indices.
Based on the results the researcher therefore concludes that all the four dimensions
of psychological empowerment namely, meaningfulness, self-determination,
competence and impact significantly contribute to rural women engagement in
income generating activities, and family life stage moderates the relationship
between psychological empowerment and engagement. The results support the use
of self-determination theory and conservation of resources theory as theoretical
foundation for the research model. Family life stage interacts with psychological
empowerment to influence engagement. Thus, the results implies that the
government should focus on the four dimensions so that women will be
psychologically empowered and hence will be more engaged in their income
generating activities. The Ministry of Women Affairs in charge of the program
should enhance its policies on providing a child care support center for those with
children and a flexible time for their involvement in income generating activities. |
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