Interlinking alcohol intake, mental stress, psychotic experiences and job performance of higher institutions' graduates: A structural equation modelling

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Graduates’ job performance has become a matter that needs urgent attention. This is because many stakeholders are increasingly becoming interested in understanding the extent schools are able to produce output that meets the yearnings of society. Along these lines, we examined the contributions of alcohol intake to the job performance of higher education graduates while treating mental stress and psychotic experiences as mediators in the nexus. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study's population comprised all the graduates of higher education institutions in Nigeria between 2015 and 2020. Data were collected from a virtual cross-section of 3,862 graduates who self-reported to have taken alcohol in the past. These participants responded to an electronic questionnaire that was mailed to them. The scale content validity for clarity and relevance were 0.90 and 0.88, respectively, while the Cronbach alpha reliability estimate of the instrument is 0.86. RESULTS: Amongst many others, key findings indicate that alcohol intake, mental stress and psychotic experiences jointly made a significant negative contribution to the overall job performance of graduates ( R 2 = 0.256, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.23, 0.28], P = 0.00). Mental stress ( B = −0.09, β = −0.14, z = −4.45, 95%CI [−0.24, −0.05], P = 0.00) and psychotic experiences ( B = −0.26, β = −0.43, z = −8.07, 95%CI [−0.68, −0.16], P = 0.01) have significant negative contributions to graduates’ job performance, respectively. Alcohol intake and mental stress jointly predict the psychotic experiences of graduates ( B = −0.26, β = −0.43, z = −8.07, 95%CI [−0.68, −0.16], P = 0.01). Alcohol intake has a positive contribution to the mental stress of graduates ( R 2 = 0.797, 95%CI [0.77, 0.825], P = 0.01). Mental stress and psychotic experiences jointly mediated the relationship between alcohol intake and graduates’ job performance. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that high intake of alcohol and high levels of mental stress and psychotic experiences significantly reduce graduates’ job performance generally and in specific aspects. Alcohol intake can increase graduates’ job performance to a small extent depending on the amount consumed.

Innate ability, health, motivation, and social capital as predictors of students’ cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning outcomes in secondary schools

“…New studies also show that secondary school children who do better academically also engage in more healthy habits on an individual and population level ( Grøtan et al, 2019 ; Luo et al, 2022 ). Furthermore, individuals who engage in risky activities, including not getting enough exercise, eating poorly, smoking, or abusing alcohol or other drugs, are more likely to do poorly in school and have a reduced chance of graduating ( Bożek et al, 2020 ; López-Bueno et al, 2020 ; Akah et al, 2022 ; Owan et al, 2022 ).…”

“…It has been found that students with good abilities achieve better (Cornelisz and van Klaveren, 2018;Yu, 2020;O'Connell and Marks, 2021;Melawati et al, 2022), especially in subjects such as mathematics (Semeraro et al, 2020), and algebra (O'Connell et al, 2018). Furthermore, a study which used a machine learning 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1024017 Frontiers in Psychology 03 frontiersin.org algorithm discovered that students with low cognitive abilities face the risks of having mental breaks during classes (Srimaharaj et al, 2018), and such mental breaks affect their learning achievements (Owan et al, 2022). However, the cited studies all measured students' achievement from the cognitive domain, with some studies being experimental in nature.…”

Skill Acquisition Training and Unemployment Reduction among Youths in Cross River State, Nigeria

“…However, the category of self-employment within the labor market has been largely overlooked in many job creation plans implemented in Cross River State (Owan et al, 2023a). Studies conducted by different scholars reveal that the training provided to adolescents has not effectively equipped them with the necessary skills, values, attitudes, and competencies essential for fostering job creation and self-employment (Madumere-Obike, 2016; Nwangwu, 2017;Owan et al, 2022bOwan et al, , 2022c.…”

Perspectives of Nigerian Graduates on Curriculum Reengineering, Acquisition of Emerging Technologies, and Job Creation: A Descriptive Study

“…In Nigeria, the lesson contents and learning experiences offered to learners, arising from the previous or existing school curriculum at all levels of education, have been criticised by scholars. Due to societal advancement (occasioned by the pervasive development in science, information and communication technology), the quality of products supplied to society from higher education institutions in Nigeria is often a mismatch for most workplace demands (Owan et al, 2022a;2022b). Consequently, there seem to be many deficiencies among Nigerian graduates, leading to the high rate of unemployment often reported in the literature (Ekaette et al, 2019;Innocent, 2014;Nyong, 2013;Odigwe et al, 2018).…”