Abstract
This study examined gender and educational differences in the management of psychosocial needs of the elderly in River State: Implications for counseling. The study adopted descriptive research design. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population comprised all the elderly (60 years and above) in Rivers State. A sample of 400 Elderly men and women were selected through stratified random sampling technique. The researcher developed a self-structured questionnaire titled “Gender and Educational differences in the Management of Psychosocial needs of the Elderly scale” (GEMPNES). The GEMPNES is divided into two sections, A and B. Section A was made up of demographic data while Section B contained 40 items designed for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was established through test re-test method using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the reliability coefficient obtained was (r = 0.84). Mean and standard deviation were used to answer all the research questions; independent sampled t-test and analysis of variance were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha levels. The study found that, in the management strategies of the psychosocial needs of the elderly in Rivers State based on gender, there was no significant difference but based on educational qualifications there was significant difference. Based on the findings, the study recommends among others that inclusive psychosocial support programs that address common elderly needs across genders should be developed.
Keywords: Gender, Management, Psychosocial, Needs, Elderly