The Role of Social Support on Psychological Wellbeing of Victims of Herdsmen Attacks in Plateau State

Abstract

The impact of armed attacks at individual, family and community levels can be a sufficient limitation on the victim’s ability to function and to cope with everyday life, as such, the need for an urgent intervention among the victims. This study investigates the role of Social Supports on psychological wellbeing of victims of herders attacks in Internally Displaced Camps in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. A descriptive research design of ex-post-facto type was used in the study and 234 victims of herdsmen attacks participated in the study. There were 130 (55.6%) females and 104 (44.4%) males. The Ryff’s Psychological Wellbeing Scales (PWB), and Scale Perceived Social Support were used to collect the data from the participants. The collected data was analyzed using simple regression analyses. The results for hypothesis one showed that psychological support significantly predicted psychological wellbeing among victims of herdsmen attack (p < .05). Hypothesis two show that there was no significant gender differences on psychological wellbeing among victims of herdsmen attacks in Barkin Ladi LGA, Means: Male, 1.47 (SD 1.50), Female, 1.46 (.50), p>.05. The findings showed Social Support significantly predicted psychological wellbeing among the victims of herdsmen attacks and as such, encouraged relevant authorities to step up modalities towards ameliorating the plights of victims through policies and their implementation that will ensure all those affected are provided with the needed social supports.