Assessing the Coping Strategies for Reducing Financial Stress among Unemployed Graduates in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigates   the coping strategies unemployed graduates in   Enugu State adopt to reduce financial stress. It was hypothesized   that unemployed graduates in Enugu would depend on families,  friends, engage in menial jobs, be optimistic and patience  as coping  strategies  for  reducing financial  stress. Through  a purposive means,  150  copies of the  questionnaire were administered to  unemployed graduates in  Enugu State, Nigeria. The Chi-Square goodness of fit was used  to  test    the hypotheses raised. Result showed that  the coping strategies unemployed graduates in Enugu  State adopt to reduce financial stress are depending of family members, friends, engaging in menial jobs and  optimism. Patience was found not to be a  coping strategy unemployed graduates use as the calculated  p-value  was more than 0.05 alpha level. The researcher  recommends  among  others the  that  financial  experts should collaborate with the  National Orientation  Agency to create awareness on the need for  unemployed graduates to adopt coping strategies to  handle financial  stress.

Keywords: coping, finance, unemployed, graduates, stress and strategy.