Moderating Effects of Religious Belief on the Relationship between Help-Seeking Behaviour and Mental Health of Flood Victims in Mokwa, Nigeria

Abstract

Flooding, a significant natural and human-induced disaster in Nigeria, severely impacts multiple life domains including livelihoods, shelter, and physical safety, with profound consequences for victims’ mental health. Despite the recognition of psychosocial factors in disaster recovery, limited empirical evidence exist on how religious beliefs and help-seeking processes interact to influence mental health among flood victims in the Nigerian context. This study investigated the moderating effects of religious beliefs on the relationship between help-seeking behaviour and mental health of Mokwa flood victims. The study adopted a cross sectional survey design. Survey instruments include religiosity scale; help-seeking behaviour scale and mental wellbeing scale were used to collect data from six hundred and forty (640) flood victims in Mokwa Town who were purposively selected for the study. Three research hypotheses were tested: (1) Religious beliefs would significantly influence mental health of flood victims,(2) Help-seeking behaviour would significantly influence mental health of flood victims, and (3) Religious beliefs would moderate the relationship between help-seeking behavior and mental health of flood victims. Linear regression analysis and moderation analysis using Andrew Haye Process macro were used in testing the hypotheses in the study. Result revealed that religious beliefs significantly influenced the mental health of flood victims [R = .35; R2 = .12; F (1, 639) = 87.05; p < .01]. It was also showed that help-seeking behaviour significantly influenced the mental health of flood victims [R = .46; R2 = .21; F (1, 639) = 169.57; p < .01]. It was further revealed that increase in help-seeking behaviour and religious beliefs indicated significant effects on the mental health of flood victims (β = -9.90; t = -5.21; p < .01; (β = -5.86; t = -4.89; p < .01) respectively. The interaction between help-seeking behaviour and religious beliefs has a significant effects on mental health of flood victims (β = 0.15; t = 5.45; p < .01). The analysis of conditional effects revealed that the effects of help-seeking behaviour on mental health were significantly differentiated when religious belief was low (β = -0.267; t = -1.99; p > .05), moderate (β = 0.192; t = 3.79; p < .01) and high (β = 1.416; t = 8.00; p < .01). It was concluded that help-seeking behaviour and religious beliefs significantly influenced mental health among flood victims.