Perceived Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Health of Single Mothers in Rivers State, Nigeria

Globally, COVID-19 had serious social, economic and health impacts on the lives of individuals, especially single mothers; the situation was worse in developing countries like Nigeria. The study aimed to ascertain the perceived impact of COVID-19 on the social health of single mothers in River State Nigeria. A cross-sectional research design was employed in the study. Taro Yamane's technique was used to determine a sample size of 285 out of the 1000 single mothers that made up the study's population. A multi-stage sampling strategy was employed. A questionnaire was the instrument for data collection and was self-developed, validated, and pretested. Descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage were employed, and the hypotheses were tested using the Chi-square test statistic. It was found that Covid -19 pandemic had a high perceived impact on the social health of single mothers in Rivers State, Nigeria (63.7%). Single mothers less than 25 years had average perceived impact (47.4%); 25 to 44 years had an average perceived impact (50.7%); those above 44 years had a high perceived impact (64.6%). Based on the level of education, the perceived impacts are as follows: no formal education (33.3%), primary education (38.7%), secondary education (38.2%) and tertiary education (43.5%). Furthermore, occupation as a variable showed the perceived impacts as found below: unemployed (44.3%), self-employed (40.6%) and employed (42.5%). More so, the perceived impacts across the demographic variables were significant (p< 0.05). In conclusion, therefore, there was a high perceived impact of covid-19 pandemic on the social health of single mothers in Rivers State; the impact was more on single mothers who were beyond 44 years old. Based on the level of education and occupation, the impact was more on those with tertiary education and employed respectively. It was recommended that social health support services should be considered globally by policymakers when making certain legislation and policies. Mental health services and financial aid necessary to address the effects of COVID-19 on the social health of single mothers should be provided.