Youth Leaders' Perception of Community Responsiveness to Health and Social Protocols for Curbing the Spread of the COVID – 19 Pandemic in Akwa Ibom and River States of Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined youth leaders' perception of the extent of community 
responsiveness to health and social protocols for curbing the COVID-19 
pandemic in Akwa Ibom and River States of Nigeria. Two (2) research 
questions and two (2) hypotheses guided the study. The design for the study 
was the descriptive survey and the population comprised 3624 youth leaders 
in Akwa Ibom and River States, from which 1450 (40%) were sampled using 
the proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The instrument of 
the study was a validated 39-item Youth Leaders Perception of Community 
Responsiveness to Health and Social Protocols for COVID-19 Curbing Scale 
(CRHSPCCS), designed by the researchers in the modified four-point Likert 
scale, with a reliability index of 0.85, obtained using Cronbach Alpha 
Statistics. Mean and standard deviation were used in answering the research 
questions, while z – test was used in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of 
significance. The results of the study showed that, youth leaders’ perception 
of the extent of community responsiveness to health and social protocols for 

curbing the COVID-19 pandemic was at a low extent and that there were no 
significant differences between the mean ratings of youth leaders from Akwa
Ibom and River States on the extent of community responsiveness to health 
and social protocols for curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 
Akwa Ibom and River States of Nigeria, respectively. The study concluded 
that, the extent of responsiveness to health and social protocols for curbing 
the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Akwa Ibom and River States tilted 
negatively to health protocols and positively to social protocols. 
Consequently, the study recommended that health workers should 
endeavour to mount spirited enlightenment programmes on the severity of 
the COVID-19 pandemic, so that, community residents can embrace 
adherence to health protocols during health emergencies, just as social 
workers should continue to educate community residents on the need to 
embrace social distance and other social actions during periods of health and 
social emergencies.