Measuring Youth Quality of Life in Sub-Saharan Africa: Exploring the Role of Qualitative Methods

116 Pages·2019·3.071 MB·English

by  Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN WELLBEING AND
QUALITY OF LIFE RESEARCH
Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima
Measuring Youth
Quality of Life
in Sub-Saharan
Africa
Exploring the Role of
Qualitative Methods
123
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Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima
Measuring Youth Quality
of Life in Sub-Saharan Africa
Exploring the Role of Qualitative Methods
123
Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima
FordFoundationOffice forWest Africa
Lagos,Nigeria
ISSN 2211-7644 ISSN 2211-7652 (electronic)
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Preface
There is a growing global interest and focus on the social, economic and political
development of youth as a specific demographic group. This interest transcends
various domains of their lives and is, sometimes, situated within the context of
concerns that a growing youth population could have negative implications for
opportunities, services, social stability and national progress. The interest in youth
hascontributedinnosmallwaytothegrowth ofresearchcoveringdiverseaspects
oftheirlives,particularlyinthehealthandeconomicdomains,whereacombination
of recent epidemics and growing economic challenges around the world, particu-
larly in developing countries, have resulted in specific policies and pro-
grammes targeting this group. Despite the above, however, research exploring the
prioritiesofyouth, includingtheirgoalsfor thepresentandfuture, andhow happy
they are with their lives in developing countries, remains very limited. This is
despitethegrowingdiscontentamongyouthinthesepartsoftheworldinthewake
of varying degrees of economic crises and disenchantment. This shortage of
youth-priorities-focused research is more acute in sub-Saharan Africa where youth
discontent has led to a rejection and, in some cases, resistance, of the political and
economic status quo. This limited research on youth priorities in sub-Saharan
Africa leaves an important gap in the literature which needs to be filled.
An attempt at understanding the lives of youth which explores their individual
goals and the state of their current lives offers a holistic process to capture both
what is important to them and how to address any gaps that exist. One approach
through which this can be done effectively is the quality of life (QoL) approach—
which explores diverse domains of a person’s life to provide an indication of how
well they are doing. Doing so offers a researcher an opportunity to understand the
statusofyouthinaspecificlocalcontext,whichcouldenableawiderappreciation
of their situation and offer the basis for developing policies, programmes and
interventions. Understanding youths’ lives from a QoL lens is not an isolated
activity.Itisoftenlinkedtotheirdesiresfortheirlives,andhowtheyenvisagethat
theirpresentandfuturewilllook.Youths’desiresforthepresentandfutureofferan
important basis for how they evaluate their lives, which is essentially the aim of
v
vi Preface
measures which attempt to capture and provide an understanding of their lives,
especially their QoL.
In this book, I elucidate and discuss domains of youth QoL which derive sub-
stantiallyfromthecontentoftheirgoals.AsIwilldiscusslater,goalsandQoLare
intricately linked, because people often evaluate their lives based on how much
progress they have made towards achieving their goals. The book makes both a
methodologicalandsubstantivecontributiontotheliteratureonyouthand QoL.In
relation to methodology, it discusses a process of item selection for a new QoL
measure which draws primarily on the goals of a specific group of youth using an
extensive process that draws both on qualitative and quantitative data analyses.
Regardingits substantivecontribution, it leads tothedevelopment ofameasureof
youthQoL,whichderivesfromyouths’goalsandsatisfactionwiththeachievement
of those goals, thus providing a set of items that could be tested or compared with
itemsfromothercomparablecontextswithinNigeriaand,potentially,beyond.The
book isintended asa contributiontothegrowingbody ofworkaround youth, and
specifically on youth QoL in sub-Saharan Africa, which itself is linked to related
bodies of work such as happiness and subjective well-being.
A large portion of this book draws on the literature on goals and QoL. It also
reportsfindingsofmyPh.D.researchinwhichIexplorethegoalsofundergraduate
students in Nigeria to develop a measure of their QoL, based on data collected
between 2012 and 2014. I illustrate in places the ways in which the methodology
adopted in my Ph.D. research could be applied in wider research on youth QoL
measure development in sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, I situate the analysis pre-
sented here in ongoing debates regarding the pertinence of locally grounded
measurement ofdevelopment outcomes. Ihope it illuminates our understanding of
how to design measures that are local and tap what matters to youth (and other
sub-population groups) in their specific contexts.
The research presented in this book would not have been possible without the
supportofseveralindividualsandinstitutions,manyofwhomIwouldnotbeableto
namehere.Tonameafew,Iwouldliketothankmyresearchparticipants,without
whom I would not have had any basis for completing the Ph.D. study or the data
reportedinthebook.Furthermore,IthanktheRiversStateSustainableDevelopment
Agency(RSSDA)forthePh.D.scholarship(2010–2014),whichenabledtheresearch.
IwouldliketopersonallythankRotimiAmaechi,governorofRiversState(2007–
2015),forhispersonalsupportandencouragementthroughoutmyresearch.Iwould
alsoliketothankmyPh.D.supervisorsLauraCamfieldandLucioEsposito,fortheir
supportandguidancethroughouttheperiodoftheresearch.IthankValerieMoller,
formerPresidentoftheInternationalSocietyforQualityofLifeResearch(ISQOLS),
forhercontinuousencouragementandmentorship,andforofferingusefulreferences
whichenrichedtheconceptualframeworkusedfortheanalysispresentedinthisbook.
I dedicate this book to Helen Gebregiorgis—who sparked many lights that
would never have been ignited.
Lagos, Nigeria Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
How Are Our Youth Doing?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Field of Youth QoL and Measurement Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Universal Versus Locally-Grounded Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Role of Qualitative Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Methodology and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Overview of The Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Conceptualising Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Characteristics of Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Youth Agency and Inclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Economic Opportunity for Youth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Social Relationships and Educational Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Inclusion and Political Participation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Youth in Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Being a University Student in Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 Conceptualising Youth Quality of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
How QoL is Defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Goals and Quality of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Goal Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The Gap Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
QoL as Progress Towards Goal Achievement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
vii
viii Contents
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4 Measures of Quality of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Unweighted QoL Measures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS)
Adolescent Version. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Personal Wellbeing Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Weighted QoL Measures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Quality of Life Profile-Adolescent Version (QOLPAV). . . . . . . . . . . 53
Wellbeing in Developing Countries QoL (WEDQOL) Measure . . . . . 54
Limitations of Internationally Utilised Measures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5 The Role of Qualitative Methods in Youth QoL Research . . . . . . . . 59
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Process of Item Selection for New Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Qualitative Methodology in QoL Measure Development. . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Qualitative Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Cognitive Debriefing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Member Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6 Exploring Goals as Items for the SQOLS Measure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Content of Young People’s Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Becoming Somebody (Achievement) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
To Make It in Life (Material) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Becoming a Voice (Social Status) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Having Valuable Relationships (Relationships). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Developing Goals as Items for a Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Initial Validation of Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Internal Consistency Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Convergent Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Discriminant Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Contents ix
7 Validating the SQOLS Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
SQOLS Descriptive Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
SQOLS Measure Validity and Reliability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Confirmatory Factor Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Internal Consistency Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Difference Across Age Groups and Year of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Qualitative Validity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
8 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
The Role of Qualitative Methods in Youth QoL Measurement . . . . . . . 98
Strengths and Limitations of the SQOLS Research Process. . . . . . . . . . 100
Implications for Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Implications for International Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Annex: Students’ Quality of Life Scale (SQOLS).. .... .... ..... .... 105