Influence of Socio-Demographic Variables/Characteristics on Psychological Trauma Resilience among Humanitarian Aid Workers in North Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Against the backdrop of persistent insurgency in North-Eastern Nigeria driven by Boko Haram, humanitarian workers continue to operate in highly volatile and life-threatening environments, exposing them to significant psychological stressors. This study examined the influence of socio demographic variables/characteristics on psychological trauma resilience among humanitarian aid workers in Nigeria. Guided by the Salutogenesis Theory of Resilience proposed by Aaron Antonovsky, the study adopted a survey research design involving humanitarian aid workers drawn from United Nations agencies and both international and local non-governmental organizations. Data were collected using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) which measures resilience from 251 participants who were drawn through the use of convenience sampling technique, while a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to test the stated hypothesis. Findings revealed that age does not have a statistically significant effect on psychological trauma resilience among humanitarian aid workers, F(1, 585) = 0.008, p = .929. This suggests that psychological resilience is relatively uniform across age groups, likely due to shared professional training, exposure to similar field conditions, and organizational support systems that enhance coping mechanisms irrespective of age. The study concludes that psychological resilience among humanitarian workers is a multifaceted construct influenced more by psychosocial and environmental factors than by demographic characteristics alone. It recommends that humanitarian organizations prioritize inclusive resilience-building interventions and that future research should explore other predictors such as emotional intelligence, personality traits, and social support systems to better understand resilience in high-risk occupational settings.