Abstract. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) environment has the potential to exacerbate stress for parents of infants admitted to the unit. This study investigated the stress among parents of hospitalized infants in neonatal intensive care unit, and its effects on parental needs and expectations. Convenient sampling method was used to select 216 parents of at-risk infants in the NICU from two Teaching Hospitals in the South-East Zone of Nigeria. Two research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. Parental Stressor Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Parental Self -report Scale on coping measures were used to measure the stress among the parents. A parent -infant demographic information was obtained and used to determine the extent to which the characteristics serve as stress predictors. Mean score, standard deviation (SD) and Spearman Rank correlation Coefficient (rho) were used to answer the research questions while Chi-square, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests were adopted in testing the null hypotheses at 0.01 level of significance. Parental stress for NICU infant behaviour and appearance significantly correlated with parental role alteration while infant gestational age correlated with parental stress for NICU staff behaviour and communication. Significant differences resulted in parental self-report of coping measures and their role alterations with regard to number of children born by parents and across the fertility history of the parents respectively. Parents of infants in the NICU need to take more active part in decision making and care of their infants.

<p>This study investigated emotional intelligence and self-efficacy as predictors of psychological adjustment among secondary school adolescents in Awka Education Zone, Anambra State. Three research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study was 4,421 senior secondary two (SS2) students from 61 secondary schools in Awka Education Zone. The Sample size of the study comprises 485 SS2 obtained using simple random sampling technique. Three sets of questionnaire titled “Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (EIQ), “Self Efficacy Questionnaire (SEQ) and “Psychological Adjustment Questionnaire (PAQ)” were used for data collection. The data obtained were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results of the study showed among others that emotional intelligence and self efficacy of students significantly predict their psychological adjustment. It was also revealed that there were positive relationship existing between adolescents’ emotional intelligence, self efficacy and their psychological adjustment. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others, that parents and teachers should devote more time and put best efforts to empower their children and students to build good self-efficacy for promoting their psychological adjustment.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0791/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

IntroductionThe revolutionary effects of information and communication technology (ICT) are felt in almost all facets of human life. More than ever before, the knowledge and capability for ICT have become a common denominator in all human interactions. According to Daniels (2002), ICT has, within, a very short time, become one of the basic building blocks of modern society. ICT has turned the whole world into a global village, making it possible to foster interaction with people in remote geographical locations at an unimaginable speed (Ogbaga 2010).A more practical and relevant definition of ICT was given by the World Bank. ICT consists of the hardware, software, networks, and media for the collection, storage, processing, transmission and presentation of information (Voice, data text, images), as well as related services (World Bank, 2007). This probably moved Ogbaga (2010:8) to define ICT as "the range of technologies that are applied in the process of collecting, storing, editing, retrieving and transfer of information in various forms". He further gives the components of ICT to include: social media and social networking, computers, mobile telephones, MP3/ MP4/ WMA storage devices, file transfer protocols, listservs, world wide web and other electronic means of information exchange among people. According to Chen and Kee (2005), ICT is the backbone of the knowledge economy and in recent years, have been recognized as an effective tool for promoting economic growth and sustainable development. Of all the components of ICT, social networking is enjoying a considerable popularity today and thus, forms the major focus of this study. The world is a global village today as a result of the use of interest, hence making social networking possible. The invention of social networking has dramatically changed the internet world. As observed by Boyd and William (2007) teenagers to elderly now exchange ideas via social sites like Facebook, Twitter, 2go, MySpace, Badoo, Palmchat. Whatsapp and many others: Walter and Rivera (2004) notes that social networking websites allows users to be part of a virtual community and the most popular sites are facebook, Whatsapp and MySpace. These networks provide users with simple tools to create a custom profile with text and pictures. A typical profile includes basic information about the user, at least one photo, and possibly a blog or other