IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL POLICY (JHSP )

E-ISSN 2545-5729
P-ISSN 2695 2416
VOL. 11 NO. 3 2025
DOI: 10.56201/jhsp.vol.11.no3.2025.pg108.120

---

The Relationship Between Health-Seeking Behaviour, Marital Stress, Coping Strategies and Psychological Well-Being Among Secondary School Teachers

Chinawa, Francis Chukwuemeka

---

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between health-seeking behaviour, marital stress, coping strategies and psychological well-being among secondary school teachers, one hundred and twenty (120) teachers were drawn using purposive sampling techniques as participants from five schools in Enugu South Local Government Area of Enugu State. Marital stress inventory (MSI) by Omoluabi (1994), the Psychological well-being instrument by Ryff [1995], the brief-cope scale developed by Carver et al., (1989) and the Health Seeking Behaviour questionnaire (H-SBQ) by Franklin (2003) were used for data collections, a correlational research design was adopted and Pearson moment correlation coefficients were used for data analysis with the aid of SPSS, finding revealed that health-seeking behaviour r= .229* significantly correlated with marital stress, emotional focus r= .308** significantly correlated with marital stress and problem focus dimension of coping strategies r= .301 significantly correlated with psychological wellbeing. Hence school teachers are encouraged to adopt more problem-focused coping strategies in solving their problem because this method will bring about positive psychological wellbeing.

keywords:

Health-seeking behaviour, Marital satisfaction, Coping strategies, Psychological

---

References:

Algorani E. B, & Gupta V. (2023). Coping Mechanisms. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure
Island
(FL):
StatPearls
Publishing.
Available
from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559031/
Alonso, J., Angermeyer, M. C., Bernert, S., Bruffaerts, R., Brugha, T. S., Bryson, H., de
Girolamo, G., Graaf, R., Demyttenaere, K., Gasquet, I., Haro, J. M., Katz, S. J., Kessler,
R. C., Kovess, V., Lépine, J. P., Ormel, J., Polidori, G., Russo, L. J., Vilagut, G.,
Almansa, J., … ESEMeD/MHEDEA 2000 Investigators, European Study of the
Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) Project (2004). Prevalence of mental
disorders in Europe: results from the European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental
Disorders (ESEMeD) project. Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica. Supplementum, (420),
21–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0047.2004.00327.x
Bandura, A. (1986), Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social-Cognitive View,
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Baral R, & Sapkota P. S, (2018) health seeking behaviour among elderly people of Bharatpur
municipality of Chitwan, Nepal. J Coll Med Sci-Nepal. 14(3):150–153.
Boersma K, Södermark M, Hesser H, Flink I. K, Gerdle B, & Linton S. J. (2019). Efficacy of
a transdiagnostic emotion-focused exposure treatment for chronic pain patients with
comorbid anxiety and depression: a randomized controlled trial. Pain. 160(8):1708-
doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001575
Caga J, Zoing M. C, Foxe D, et al. (2021). Problem-focused coping underlying lower caregiver
burden in ALS-FTD: implications for caregiver intervention. Amyotroph Lateral Scler
Frontotemporal Degener. 22(5-6):434-441. doi:10.1080/21678421.2020.1867180
Chudzicka-Czupa?a A, Hapon N, Man RHC, Li DJ, ?ywio?ek-Szeja M, Karamushka L,
Grabowski D, Paliga M, McIntyre RS, Chiang SK, Pude?ek B, Chen YL, Yen CF. (2023).
Associations between coping strategies and psychological distress among people living
in Ukraine, Poland, and Taiwan during the initial stage of the 2022 War in Ukraine. Eur
J Psychotraumatol. 14(1):2163129. doi: 10.1080/20008066.2022.2163129. PMID:
37052087; PMCID: PMC9848330Dave W. (2015). 12 causes of stress in marriage.
Patheos
Crowe B. M, & Van Puymbroeck M. (2019). Enhancing problem- and emotion-focused coping
in menopausal women through yoga. Int J Yoga Therap. 29(1):57-64.
doi:10.17761/2019-00020
de Boer S. F, Buwalda B, & Koolhaas J. M. (2017). Untangling the neurobiology of coping
styles in rodents: Towards neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in
disease susceptibility. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 74(Pt B):401-422.
Folkman S, & Moskowitz J. T. (2004). Coping: pitfalls and promise. Annu Rev Psychol.
55:745-74.
Fox C. B. (2022). What Is Psychological Well-Being? Thehealthboard
Godoy L. D, Rossignoli M. T, Delfino-Pereira P, Garcia-Cairasco N & Umeoka E. H. L (2018)
A Comprehensive Overview on Stress Neurobiology: Basic Concepts and Clinical
Implications.
Front.
Behav.
Neurosci.
12:127.
doi:
10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00127Gozzoli, C., Frascaroli, D., & D’Angelo, C. (2015).
Teachers’ wellbeing/malaise: which resources and efforts at individual, group and
organizational levels?. Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences, 191, 2241-2245.
Heba A. A., Eman N. R., & Samah R. I. E. (2019). Effect of Coping Strategies Program on
Quality of Life among. Evidence-Based Nursing Research. 1(3).
Huang, L.-C., Ahlstrom, D., Lee, A.Y.-P., Chen, S.-Y. and Hsieh, M.-J. (2016), “High
performance work systems, employee wellbeing, and job involvement: an empirical
study”, Personnel Review, 45(2), 296-314.
Huang C. (2017). Time Spent on Social Network Sites and Psychological Well-Being: A Meta-
Analysis. Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, 20(6), 346–354.
https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2016.0758
Iosif, A. (2020). The role of emotional intelligence in the psychological wellbeing.
joycorporate- academy
James K. A, Stromin J. I, Steenkamp N & Combrinck M. I (2023) Understanding the
relationships between physiological and psychosocial stress, cortisol and cognition.
Front. Endocrinol. 14:1085950. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1085950
Kidger, J., Brockman, R., Tilling, K., Campbell, R., Ford, T., Araya, R., ... & Gunnell, D.
(2016). Teachers’ wellbeing and depressive symptoms, and associated risk factors: A
large cross-sectional study in English secondary schools. Journal of Affective
Disorders, 192, 76-82
Latunji, O. O., & Akinyemi, O. O. (2018). Factors Influencing Health-Seeking Behaviour
Among Civil Servants In Ibadan, Nigeria. Annals of Ibadan postgraduate medicine,
16(1), 52–60.
Li S (2021) Psychological Wellbeing, Mindfulness, and Immunity of Teachers in Second or
Foreign Language Education: A Theoretical Review. Front. Psychol. 12:720340. doi:
10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720340
Li S (2021) Psychological Wellbeing, Mindfulness, and Immunity of Teachers in Second or
Foreign Language Education: A Theoretical Review. Front. Psychol. 12:720340. doi:
10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720340
Ismail, H.N., Karkoulian, S. & Kertechian, S.K. (2019), “Which personal values matter most?
job performance and job satisfaction across job categories”, International Journal of
Organizational Analysis, 27(1), 109-124.
Mercer, S. (2020). The wellbeing of language teachers in the private sector: An ecological
perspective. Lang. Teach. Res. 1, 1–24.
Moghe, S. & Pandey, N. (2023). Coping Competence, Mindfulness and Well-Being Among
Young Psychologists and Other Associative Fields. International Journal of Indian
Psychology, 11(1), 955-976. DIP:18.01.097.20231101, DOI:10.25215/1101 .097
Morin A. (2022). Promoting positive social classroom environments to enhance students’
mental health? Effectiveness of a school-based programme in Norway. 113(9):101966
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijer.2022.101966
Nwatu, A., C., (2018). Influence of Coping Strategies on Marital Stress among Married
Working Women, International Journal of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences. 8(3).
45-50. doi: 10.5923/j.ijpbs.20180803.02.
Olivencia-Carrión MA, Olivencia-Carrión MD, Fernández-Daza M, Zabarain-Cogollo S,
Castro GP, Jiménez-Torres MG. (2023). Anxiety Levels and Coping Strategies to Deal
with COVID-19: A Cross-Cultural Study among the Spanish and Latin American
Healthcare
Populations.
Healthcare.
11(6):844.
https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11060844
Önder E & Reyhan B (2018). The effect of proactive and preventive coping styles on personal
and organizational outcomes: Be proactive if you want good outcomes. Cogent
Psychology, 5, 1492865. Doi: 10.1080/23311908.2018.1492865
Ormel, J., Cuijpers, P., Jorm, A., & Schoevers, R. A. (2020). What is needed to eradicate the
depression epidemic, and why. Mental Health and Prevention, 17, 200177.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhp.2019.200177
Patterson, T. M. (2020).Association between emotional intelligence and marital quality of
married couples. International Journal of Physical and social Sciences, 2(12), 222
Salimirad F, & Srimathi N. (2016). The Relationship between, Psychological Well-Being and
Occupational Self-Efficacy among Teachers in the City of Mysore, India.
International Journal of Indian Psychology 3 (2), DOI: 10.25215/0302.037, DIP:
18.01.037/20160302
Scott E. (2020). Common Marriage Problems and Solutions: Sources of Marriage Problems.
Verywell Mind
Thai, T. T., Le, P. T. V., Huynh, Q. H. N., Pham, P. T. T., & Bui, H. T. H. (2021). Perceived
Stress and Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Public Health
and Preventive Medicine Students in Vietnam. Psychology research and behavior
management, 14, 795–804. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S317059
Tribhuvan, S. L. (2020). A study of stress and psychological well-being among senior college
teachers. The International Journal of Indian Psychology. 8(4) 2348-5396. (Online) |
ISSN: 2349-3429 (Print) DIP: 18.01.012

DOWNLOAD PDF

---

Back