Family Financial Crisis And The Health Of Out-of-school Adolescents In Southwest Nigeria

Background of the study: The financial crisis that hit the world since 2008 had transformed the lives of many individuals and families, posing a significant effect on the parents and subsequently may affect the children.Objectives: This study assessed factors responsible for family financial crisis, examine the effect of family financial crisis on health of out-of-school adolescents and assess the influence of socio demographic status of parents on the health of the adolescents.Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive survey, using a sample size of 240 out-ofschool adolescents. Simple  proportion formula was used to calculate sample size for this study. A 95% confidence level and 'P'- value of 0.05 was considered to be significant. Three government approved coaching centres were randomly selected, every first class in the centers was selected systematically and every fourth students according to their sitting arrangement were also systematically selected. The participants completed a selfdeveloped structured questionnaire eliciting information on the financial status of the family and its effect on the health of the adolescents. The data were analyzed using SPSS 19.0 and presented as tables using descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: The respondents were within the age range of 12 – 21. They were majorly Christian, (n=203;84.6%), a little above half (52.1%; n=125) were female while majority (86.3%; n=207) were from Yoruba ethnic group. Majority of the parents (n=99, 41.25%) were financial stable and most of the parents, (n=150; 62.5%) have settled home. There was disparity in the relationship between the parents'financial status and the health of adolescents (X2 = 0.175, P ˃ 0.5). There was a strong correlation between the fathers' educational level of adolescents with malaria and those with fever (of any other cause aside of malaria) [ r = 0.998].Conclusion and recommendation: There were disparity in the parents' financial status and the health of the out-of-school adolescents, implying that financial stability of the parents does not infer good health status of the adolescents. The family and thenurses should therefore ensure a good, healthy, normal and harmonious home environment for the appropriate development of the adolescents through community awareness and motivation. Keywords: Family, Financial Crisis, Health and Outof-school adolescen