COPING STRATEGIES NEEDED BY RETIREES FOR THEIR CHALLENGES IN PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the coping strategies needed by retirees for their challenges in Plateau State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study determined the strategies to cope with nutrition related challenges, housing related challenges, clothing related challenges, personal health related challenges, companionship/social related challenges and finance related challenges. Six research questions answered the six purposes of the study and eight null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of study was 6,712 retirees from Plateau state. 336 retirees comprising of one hundred and forty (140) female and one hundred and ninety six (196) male were sampled. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 56 retirees from six Local Government Areas of Plateau State. Two sets of instruments were used for data collection. Focus Group Discussion Guide and a structured questionnaire. The instruments were validated by three experts. Twenty copies of questionnaire were administered to retirees in Nasarawa State in to determine the internal consistency and the reliability of the instrument using Cronbach’s Alpha. The overall reliability coefficient of 0.83 was obtained. Data was analyzed using mean, standard deviation to answer research questions while t-test was used to test hypotheses. The findings revealed that retirees required 36 strategies in order to cope with their nutrition-related challenges, 42 strategies in order to cope with their housing- related challenges, 28 strategies in order to cope with their clothing-related challenges, 43 strategies in order to cope with their personal health-related challenges, 30 strategies in order to cope with their companionship/social-related challenges and 27 strategies in order to cope with finance-related challenges. The study revealed that there is a significant difference in male and female requirement for nutrition, housing, personal health, companionship/social and finance except clothing coping strategies. There is also significant difference in health and finance management practices of retirees from state and federal government services. Based on the findings of this research work, eight recommendations were made and this includes, retirees should endeavor to use coping strategies found in this study to manage their lives in retirement. Retirees should realize and accept retirement as a natural phenomenon of human development. Home Economics teachers should use these findings to plan curriculum on how to cope with retirement in schools, workshops and conferences. Hospitals and Healthcare personnel should use the findings of this study to help retirees in coping with their physical and nutritional needs. Current employees should use the findings of this study to start retirement planning early to avoid trauma. The government should make available financial benefits to retirees, make policies, pass bills and develop programmes towards the welfare of retirees. The government should also make an upward review of pension to check inflation. The government should at least establish an old people’s home in each Local Government Area for retirees who may wish to go in or partake in programmes for retirees.