Throughout the world, socio-economic status differentials of individuals have a lot of influence on privileges and opportunities enjoyed by society members. The different social and economic positions of individuals and income levels oftentimes hinder them from effective use of health care facilities. It is against this background, that the study was designed to investigate income differentials and its influence on utilization of healthcare services among the people of Calabar Metropolis in Cross River State, Nigeria. Relevant body of literature were reviewed and survey design method was adopted. The instruments used were the questionnaire, interview and Focus Group Discussions (FGD). A sample of 360 respondents was selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure for the study. Data was presented using simple percentage calculation while Chi-Square and ANOVA statistical tool was used to test and ascertain the relationship between income level and healthcare services usage at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that level of income and occupational status of individual influence health care service utilization among people in Calabar Metropolis. At the end of the study, several recommendations were made among which were a general improvement of socio-economic status of the people in areas of availability and compulsory education, employment opportunities as well as equitable distribution of income and minimizing cost of health care services for effective and equal utilization.

This study examines the impact of conditional cash transfer scheme on poverty alleviation in the rural communities of Cross River State, Nigeria. The ex-post facto research design was adopted and three hypotheses were formulated in this study. The instrument for data collection was a thirty (30) item structured questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion. The population of the study comprises 2940 beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer in the eighteen local government areas of the state, from 2010 to 2017. Cluster and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 1176 respondents. The hypotheses were analysed using Pearson product moment correlation. The findings revealed that conditional cash transfer scheme have significant relationship with poverty alleviation in terms of increase school enrolment and had tremendously helped in improving health services utilisation as most of the beneficiaries of this programme were able to access health facilities better than before the scheme. This intervention has equally helped beneficiaries to acquire requisite entrepreneurial skills that helped them to transform their lives and standard of living. On the basis of these findings it is recommended that the government should increase the number of household beneficiaries for wider coverage and spread as well as establish more health facilities in the rural areas. More so, the government should increase the number of people enlisted for entrepreneurial training and skills acquisition. (Word Count 222

This research empirically examined the impact of empowerments of traditional rulers on rural development in Cross River State, Nigeria. In order to guide the study, two research hypotheses were formulated. A survey design was adopted for the study and questionnaire was the main research instrument used to collect data from the respondents. Five hundred and twenty government certificated traditional rulers (respondents) were randomly sampled from the study area. For the purpose of sampling, the cluster and purposive sampling methods were adopted. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe Post Hoc Test were used to test the research hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance, using the appropriate degree of freedom. The results revealed that all the hypotheses were significant. That is, poor incentives given to traditional rulers as well as non-resource allocation to traditional chieftaincy institution have significant negative influence on grass root mobilization for rural development in the study area. On the basis of these findings, it was recommended among others that traditional rulers should be adequately empowered financially, socially and materially; as this would go a long way to influence their effectiveness in grass root mobilization for rural development. Besides, it would help them exercise power and achieve their own goals as well as raise their interests to bear on social responsibilities. It would also pave way for happy, enthusiastic, energetic, hardworking, selfreliant, courageous, purposeful, optimistic, trustworthy , friendly, and patriotic behavior towards rural development.

The negative attitude of youth towards African traditional values has to a great extent imprisoned the psyche of most Nigerian youth to the extent that a lag is created with concomitant socio-economic implications. We live in a world where the youth pursue fashions and values that are alien to Africa’s normative customs. Some of these youth condemn African traditional values as archaic, demonic, timid and of no relevance in the present dispensation. It is also obvious that many youth pursue values without knowing whether they are right or wrong and sometimes ignorant of their implications. In a bid to appear “civilized” or “modern”, some youth find themselves entrapped in a world of confusion. The paper employed qualitative research, involving published data and it was observed that factors such as western ideology and the dilemma of globalization as well as western educational system, social media and the family have influenced youth’s negative attitude towards African traditional values. Indeed, these factors have greatly influenced the youth to undermine the African traditional values. For example, a greater number of youth perceive African traditional values to be inferior compared to foreign values. It was further observed that the craze for western values also resulted to the adoption of strange criminal behaviors such as scam, hate speeches, kidnappings, terrorism, fraud, corruption, youth restiveness, drug abuse, cultism and conflicts among the youth. It is therefore recommended among others that government should introduce policy measures that will promote African traditional values, norms and culture among youth. This can also be done effectively through social work counseling, sensitizations, behavior change processes and advocacy by Non-Governmental Organizations, faith base organizations and social workers. Word count: 274

This study investigated family characteristics and adolescent sexual behavior in Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State. The study employed descriptive research survey type was chosen for this study. The population for this study consisted of all adolescents in public secondary schools from senior secondary one to senior secondary three in Yala Local Government Area. A sample of three hundred (300) respondents (students) from senior secondary school one to secondary three was selected using simple random sampling techniques. The instrument employed in the study was a self-developed structured questionnaire Adolescent Questionnaire (AQ). The data collected after coding were analyzed using Mean, Standard deviation and t-test statistic. T-test statistic was used to test the four hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that family structure, parental monitoring, socioeconomic status and religious background have a significant influence on adolescent sexual behavior in Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State. It was therefore recommended that parents should discuss sexuality issues with their adolescent children to disabuse their minds from early engagement in sexual activities. Parents should also respect the institution of marriage and the core values that keep a family together so that their adolescent children will follow their examples.