Background: In 2018, the Nigerian Communication Commission affirmed that more than 100 million Nigerians made use of the Internet. A good percentage of internet usage is maladaptive. A valid, reliable, and socio-culturally sensitive assessment instrument is essential to study internet usage patterns in Nigeria. Young’s Internet Addiction test (IAT) has been validated in many countries, but not in Nigeria. Objectives: This study aimed to validate IAT to determine psychometric properties acceptable in a Nigerian population. Materials and Methods: A total of 184 Nigerian University undergraduates (77 males and 107 females), mean age = 20.5, were purposively drawn, and they responded to IAT, the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), and the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS). Results: The Cronbach’s α of the six IAT factors ranged from 0.25 (anticipation) to 0.69 (salience). The observed overall Cronbach’s α coefficient of 0.79 was obtained for IAT. The corrected item-total correlations ranged from 0.73 to 0.84. The concurrent validity score was observed to be r = 0.54 between IAT and SAS-SV and r = 0.58 between IAT and BFAS. A significant positive correlation was equally observed between the IAT and BFAS factors, ranging from conflict (r = 0.322, P = 0.000) to relapse (r = 0.488, P = 0.000). The new norm determined for IAT in the Nigerian population was ≥ 38.5 for males and ≥ 40.8 for females. Conclusions: IAT is gender-sensitive and has acceptable psychometric properties for the Nigerian population.

Aim: Abuse of psychoactive substances among secondary school adolescents is a huge problem globally. This study examined the influence of psychoactive substance use on psychopathological symptoms among secondary school adolescents in Ede, Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria. Study Design: Cross-sectional survey design.              Place of Study: Redeemer’s University Ede Osun state, Southwestern Nigeria. Methodology: Four hundred and ninety-six (496) secondary school adolescents (mean age 15.7 years) were purposively selected from five secondary schools in Ede metropolis. Substance Abuse Inventory (SABI) and Awaritefe Psychological Index (API Form-X) were used for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Four hypotheses were tested using a Regression Analysis, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Independent Sample t-test and at 0.05% level of significance. Results: A high prevalence of psychopathological symptoms was observed among the participants. Psychoactive substance use was observed to jointly and significantly predict psychopathological symptoms (R² = .106, p = .001). Sex has significant influence on manifested psychopathological symptoms with female adolescents reporting higher mean scores on insomnia, intellect disorder, heat disorder, mood disorder, alimentary track disorder and general psychopathology. Age was observed to be inversely correlated with psychopathological symptoms. Significant difference was found between drug users and non-user on severities of psychopathological symptoms. Conclusions: This research finding indicates a high prevalence of psychopathological symptoms; that the use psychoactive substance is significantly linked the psychopathological symptoms and that age of involvement in psychoactive substance is also a significant risk factor for psychopathology among adolescents.

This paper describes the development and validation of a Christian Ministers Psychopathological Scale (CMPS) to facilitate early diagnosis of mental health challenges among Christian Ministers, especially in Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and was carried out in four stages. The initial items were generated from an extensive review of literature and concerns raised from a focused group discussion among Christian ministers with Pentecostal affiliation. These concerns are perceived as possible predictors of mental health challenges among the ministers. Fifty-two (52) participants were randomly selected from Ede, Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria for the scale development, while four hundred and fifty-six (456) participants were randomly selected across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria. They responded to the online versions of the  15- item instrument (CMPS) and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-14) for the congruent validation. The observed KMO measure was 0.47, and a significant sphericity test was observed (X2=1258.495, df= .703, p = .000). All the 15 items extracted from the Principal Components Analysis PCA were within the very good discrimination values. The CMPS has a Cronbach's alpha of .79. Congruent validity coefficient of (r =.368, p = .035); was observed between CMPS and DASS-14. Authors conclude that the CMPS is gender-sensitive, has acceptable psychometric properties and is recommended as a diagnostic tool for assessing psychopathological symptoms among Christian ministers.

Christian Counselling (CC) is the practice of talking with individuals, couples, and families to increase their understanding of emotional and religious conflicts and to help resolve problems using Christian religious injunctions and other related resources. Meseron Therapy (MT) was developed in accordance with the Nigerian belief in the power, potency and meaning of spoken words and its consequences. MT entails rejecting negativities and accepting the positives, with the techniques of MT reflecting a cognitive orientation. MT and CC approaches have several common grounds. The basic assumptions of MT such as the power of the spoken words to sensitize action, the ignition of man's inherent potential for change, replacement of a negative status quo with constructive actions and the view of man as a striving creature all have Biblical support. Also, MT's views on human nature and the causes of psychological disturbance agree with Christian teachings and beliefs. Application of Meseron therapeutic techniques and procedures to CC can be done by using Biblical teachings to enable clients sustain good health, encouraging the good use of endowments, assisting client in mental restructuring through motivation to strive, building and encouraging possibility thinking, enabling the clients to reject distractions from goal accomplishments and getting clients to say it right and synergize their thoughts, words and actions.

Background: Self-medication (SM) is the selection and use of medicines by individuals to treat self-recognized illnesses or symptoms. Objectives: The study assessed the patterns and links between SM and illness behavior in Nigerian artisans. Methods: In this cross-sectional survey, a multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 186 participants (age range = 15 - 61 years; mean = 31.5) in the Ede community of Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria. The artisans (beauticians, autoworkers, and house building construction workers) responded to the self-medication test (SMT) and Illness Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ). Frequency counts were employed to analyze the participants' demographic characteristics, while linear regression analysis was used to answer the research question. Results: The findings from this study revealed a 47.8% prevalence of SM, ranging from 14.2% of antibiotics SM to 51.1% of alternative medicine SM. SM was observed to independently and significantly predict disease conviction (R2 = 0.030, P = 0.018), psychological/somatic perception (R2 = 0.034, P = 0.012), general illness reaction (R2 = 0.064, P = 0.000), and general illness behavior (R2 = 0.028, P = 0.023) of the participants. Conclusions: Our findings revealed the need for an increase in public enlightenment, awareness, and sensitization among artisans on ills of SM. Also, we recommend psycho-education among this vulnerable group.