Coping Strategies of Unemployed Youths in Kwara State, Nigeria

The aftermath of unemployment is a great concern for researchers as the coping strategies are farfetched therefore, this study investigated the coping strategies of unemployed youths in Kwara State, Nigeria. The influence of variables such as gender, highest educational level and age were also examined. Quantitative research design was adopted for this study, while descriptive survey was also adopted as a research method for this study. Random and purposive sampling techniques were used to draw a total sample of 600. Coping Strategies of Unemployed Youths Questionnaire (CSUYQ)” was used to collect relevant data. The instrument was subjected to test re-test reliability co-efficient which yielded 0.68 and the hypotheses tested were analyzed using t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. Frequency counts and percentages were used to describe the demographic data. The study revealed that the coping strategies employed by unemployed youths include dependent on parents, attending vocational training workshops, engaging in casual labour etc. The research hypotheses tested revealed no significant difference in the coping strategies of unemployed youths in Kwara State based on educational qualification while there was a significant difference based on gender and age. In line with the findings of the study, it was recommended that Nigerian government should design more vocational programmes and revitalize the existing ones, provide take-off grants for unemployed youths to establish businesess, invest in, re-tool and re-engineer the farming system with modernized implements to accommodate large percentage of unemployed youths.

Keywords: Coping Strategies, Unemployed Youths, Kwara State