Abstract

C. Ewhrudjakpor

This study aimed at relating socio- demographics of people and their life event stressors to psychosomatic disorders or symptoms they have experienced or suffered during their day to day living. The respondents were 1631 public servants systematically sampled in Nigeria’s oil rich Niger-Delta region of the Federation which has nine out of the thirty-six States. Their socio-demographics included: sex, age, residence, marital status, educational and economic status. Two measuring Psychometric tools: Holmes and Rahe’s Life Event Inventory (modified) and Omoluabi’s Psychophysiologocal symptoms checklist were used. The data generated was statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 11. The result show that stressors do cause somatic symptoms but the nature and pattern of psychosomatic symptoms and diseases depends on socio-demographics such as sex, age, marital status, residence and economic conditions. It was concluded that therapeutic measures should be anchored on socio-demographics in order to alleviate or eliminate psychosomatic disorders.